Silent Gulch 2: Retribution
by firerwolf
Summary: The sequel to Silent Gulch. 10 years after the events of Silent Gulch the past comes back to haunt the RvB crew. Alessa works to figure out the secret of Silent Hill. All the while Silent Hill has it's own plans. Rated for language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

Silent Gulch 2 Chapter 1

Alessa moved through the forest. She'd been here many times before, she knew the way. Still, her moves were hesitant as she moved along the unmarked path. He would be at the end of the path, he always was. A part of her didn't want to see him, but she was desperate for it at the same time. She knew in the end she would regret finding him, she always did. She hoped this time would be different; this time would be good, happy.

She jumped down from the large fallen tree that was blocking her path. The wilted brown grass crunched under her feet. She was getting closer and she knew it, and feared it as well. Everything was dead beyond this point. The trees were all dead, dried-up leaves holding on to the branches in patches. Wilted vines hung from trees where they'd once climbed and clung tightly t the bark. Dead plants and leaves crackled under her feet with each step. At first glance it looked like a radioactive testing sight. The area was void of sound other then Alessa's steps. No birds, no wind, not scampering little creatures running about.

She moved through the dense trees, being careful not to touch them. She'd felt them before and something hadn't felt right about them. Nothing felt right in the dead part of the forest. There was something different, though. Something had walked the path before her, something with claws. Some of the trees had deep gashes running across their trunks. Alessa moved just a bit closer to the tree as she realized something was seeping from the cuts. She reached out wiping up a bit of the liquid. She expected it to be sap, but it wasn't. It wasn't a shade of brown but, rather, a bright red. She knew she should have been more scared. The trees were bleeding, after all. It didn't strike her as odd, though, and she was more focused on what made the cuts.

There was a light source ahead and Alessa slowed unsure if she should keep going. Her mind screamed no, to turn back, but her feet moved her forward. As she stepped out of the trees and into the clearing light seemed to hang in the air, with no visible source. He was there, just as she knew he would be, just as he always was. He stood in the center of the clearing, back facing her. His faded blue shirt was soaked with blood. The long slash marks across his back looked almost identical to the cuts from the trees. Whatever had done it had ripped into his shoulder as well. The wounds were still fresh as blood dripped down to the ground.

Alessa's eyes fell lower, to his feet. On the ground before him lay a mutilated body. She wasn't even sure if it was human. The chest had been ripped open, limbs torn from the main body. The skull had been caved in, leaving no face to prove it had been human. Alessa gasped and clamped her hands over her mouth to try to keep herself from screaming.

The sound caught his attention and he looked up from the body. Alessa drew her attention back to him and away from the corpse. His face turned partially toward her. His black hair was matted with blood, some of which was still wet. Blood ran down from his hairline down his face. The clear blue eyes that stared back at her looked fearful. He turned his body toward her his mouth working to try to find words.

"What did you do dad?" Alessa asked.

His mouth moved but no sound came out. He suddenly froze as a large blade broke though his chest.

"Dad!" Alessa shouted before the blade was pulled free. He fell to the ground struggling to breathe as he bled. Alessa screamed in horror.

She sat up right in her bed, only partially aware that it had all been a dream. Her throat hurt from the screaming and she was aware of the tears streaking down her cheeks. She pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging her legs to her. She let herself cry as she tried to calm herself.

The door to her room opened and a woman walked in taking a seat beside the teenagers on the bed.

"Alessa, dear, what's wrong? Did you have another nightmare?" the woman asked. Alessa nodded and the woman wrapped her arms around her. "Was it the same as the others?"

Alessa shook her head. "It was worse than usual, mom." She leaned into Tex in need of the comfort. "He was there like usual but he was hurt, and there was something else there."

"What else was there?" Tex asked, concerned. The dreams had been getting worse and worse over the past month and been escalating even more in the recent weeks.

"It was a body, all torn up." Alessa was silent as though unsure of her next words. "Mom, he looked scared."

Tex sighed holding her daughter to her to comfort her. "Do you think that you can get back to sleep?" She was unsure of anything else that she could do.

Alessa was silent, then shook her head. "Every time I close my eyes I see him, that body, the fear." She buried her face into her knees.

Tex stood up and walked across the room. She returned a moment later with a sky blue dragon stuffed animal. She'd given it to Alessa for her eighth birthday, the first birthday they'd celebrated together.

She held out the dragon to the teen. "Here, Harry always helps you calm down." Alessa snatched up the dragon quickly hugging it to her.

Tex smiled a bit at her adopted daughter. "Try to get some sleep, dear. If you feel up to it, we'll talk about your dream in the morning."

Alessa lay down, curling up under her covers to try to get to sleep. Tex frowned, watching the young woman try to get to sleep. She moved out of the room and was sure to shut the door behind her before moving down the hallway back to her own room. She lay down getting comfortable under her sheets.

Tex turned to look over at the picture on her night table. It was of her and Church from back before they'd joined the army. They were happy and smiling and it made her miss the blue leader.

"I wish you were here," Tex muttered, turning over and falling back to sleep.

~End chapter 1~


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Don't own Silent Hill or Red Vs blue.

Silent Gulch 2 Chapter 2

Alessa sat at the dining room table, looking down at her cereal. After her nightmare she hadn't slept well. She felt someone pull back on her hair and she panicked for a moment until she realized the pull wasn't violent. She looked over her shoulder at Tex who was tying Alessa's long red hair back in a pony tail.

"How are you feeling today?" Tex asked when she finished.

"Tired," Alessa answered, turning back to her cereal. "I had trouble getting back to sleep."

"Want to tell me more about the nightmare?" Tex asked, moving over to the coffee pot. She had it preset to make coffee at the same time every morning.

"It was like all the others until the end. Something had cut his back and torn up his shoulder. Then some giant blade stabbed through him and he fell down, just dying," Alessa answered.

Tex froze at her daughter's words. Memories of Church standing on the train platform, showing the wound on his shoulder, dying at Pyramid Head's hands. They all came flooding back as a painful reminder. "You said there was another body. Who was it?" Tex asked, trying to take her mind off the fallen soldier.

Alessa shrugged, unsure of what to say. "I didn't recognize it, not that there was much to recognize. It looked like an animal had torn apart the torso and smashed in the skull," she explained casually. "I'm not even sure if it was human."

Silence filled the room as the two women tried to figure it all out. The front door of their home swung open, breaking the quiet. In a second Tex had a gun pointed at the door and the soldier that had entered froze. Alessa stared at her mother, stunned.

"Is this how you greet all your guests?" Tucker asked nervously. "How'd you even get that thing? They don't allow us weapons."

"Knock next time, idiot," Tex scolded the teal soldier. "I have my ways to get things. I have a daughter to protect, and we do live in a community of crazy people."

"Better not let them find out you have that or they'll suspect you," Tucker warned, taking a seat at the table next to Alessa.

"Suspect me of what exactly?" Tex put away the gun before grabbing a second mug and pouring Tucker some coffee.

"Of killing that Townshed guy that lived down the street. James told me that Townshed had been killed and, man, was it bloody. The MPs think a bear or something got in and tore the bastard up. Apparently, they had to use finger prints to find out who he was. Face and chest were just a mess."

"Does that mean school is canceled?" Alessa asked, hiding the fear that she felt from her voice. What he'd described sounded a lot like the body she'd seen in her dream.

"Nope, it's not public news yet. I only know because James is the one that found the body," Tucker answered.

"You heard him, young lady, get upstairs and get ready for school," Tex instructed.

Alessa nodded, silently doing as she was told.

Tex waited until the teen was gone before she spoke. "Alessa had a nightmare again last night."

"They're becoming more frequent. I thought we were done with this all those years ago," Tucker said, frowning.

"I just don't know what to do, Tucker. I wish that Church was still alive." Tex handed the mug of coffee over to Tucker.

"Why? So that he can tell you he has no idea how to deal with the nightmares that his daughter from a creepy ghost town of monsters is having? That wouldn't be much help, and don't you say he's usually part of the dreams?" Tucker asked.

"Church seemed to have an understanding of that place, of Alessa. I think he'd know what to do." Despite her words, Tex still sounded unsure. "Yes, she says he's always there, like he's the reason why she's there."

"I'm heading to school," Alessa announced, moving down the stairs and grabbing her backpack from the chair near the door.

"Have a good day at school dear." Tex smiled and wavedto her daughter.

"I will, Mom. Later, Uncle Tucker." Alessa walked out of the door and off to school.

"You know for a creepy little kid from a horror-film town, she didn't turn out to bad," Tucker admitted.

Tex chuckled and threw a dish towel at him, warning him to stop calling her daughter creepy.

* * *

Alessa spent the majority of the day distracted. Her dream still haunted her as she sat in class.

She stood at her locker after the end of the school day. She started to slide her physics book into her locker, but stopped as it hit something. She withdrew the book, reaching in to find what had gotten in the way. She came out with a leather-bound journal. A blue eagle was stamped onto the cover. Alessa'd never seen anything like it.

She put away her school books, moving out to the entrance of the school. She still had to wait for her friend to arrive so they could walk home. Alessa sat down on the topmost stair, out of the way of traffic. She opened the journal to find blank pages. She flipped through, not sure what to make of it. She found only one entry at the very front of the book. The handwriting was a bit sloppy, but she managed to make out the words on the pages. What she read, though, confused her.

_Dear (Name illegible)_

_I thought that I understood it, but I didn't. It's not good or bad, It's never forced someone to do something. We are the sinners, we are to blame, It just takes advantage of that. The sin is mine to bear and I made the deal to right my wrong. I want to be able to blame It so badly but I know it would be a lie. So I remain here in hell to pay for my sin._

_The one lost to the darkness._

Alessa read over the entry several times, unable to make sense of what it said. She didn't understand what 'it' was or what sin the writer referred to. She didn't even notice when her friend arrived.

"What are you reading?" the teenage boy asked, looking over her shoulder to try to get a good look at the words on the page.

"This weird journal that I found in my locker," Alessa said, shutting the journal and standing up. "What took you so long anyway, Alex?"

"Had to talk to the teacher after class," Alex answered. "Turns out I did worse on that test than I thought I did."

"So, in other words, you failed the test awfully. Your dads are going to kill you," Alessa said, putting away the journal.

"Oh, I know how to work them. Dad won't care, then Dad will get mad at Dad for not caring, then Dad and Dad will argue with each other and I won't see them for the rest of the day," Alex said. "Maybe after they've gone upstairs, you and I could head upstairs."

"If you say those four words, I'll kill you," Alessa warned. "You've been spending too much time around Uncle Tucker, not to mention why would I want to do that with a dirty Red?"

"Being Red isn't that bad," Alex defended. "All my family are Reds and they are great."

"Maybe my family should adopt you to save you from the Redness," Alessa suggested.

"Hey, doesn't it seem dark to you?" Alex asked, looking up into the sky. "Looks like a storm might come soon."

"Doesn't look like rain clouds to me. Seems more like someone's burning something ," Alessa commented.

"That doesn't sound much better. Something big would have to be burning to make the sky that dark." Alex frowned.

"I don't know; something like a tire fire, or coal mine fire, or maybe some new device just blew up," Alessa answered. "So how has Uncle Grif been? Mom said that the last time he was over he fell down the stairs."

"Oh, yeah, Dad thought he just said that to get out of doing any work. He's all right though. Dad took good care of him. Though between you and me I think he took advantage of Dad," Alex answered.

"Alex, do you ever feel weird having two dads?" Alessa asked. "Don't get me wrong, I love both your dads but do you ever wish you had a mom?"

Alex shook his head. "I don't really notice it. My actual dad didn't want me, so I feel blessed that my dads wanted to adopt me. Not to mention I have two parents," Alex teased, flinching for the hit that he expected.

"That was uncalled for." Alessa turned into the main gates of the community they lived in. She flashed her ID and the MP waved her through.

Alex flashed his own ID and was waved through right after her. "Oh, come on Al, you know I didn't mean it that way. Your mom's like three parents anyway. What's with you anyway? Usually you'd just hit me and tell me two Red parents is like being raised by Doc."

"Sorry Alex, it's just, I started having the dreams again," Alessa told him. "My dad's always in them, so it's a bit of a hard subject right now."

"Sorry, Alessa, I had no idea. I though you only had those dreams when you were little. I mean, I know that you still have them every once in a while." Alex had heard about some of the ones she'd been having randomly though the years.

"Well, I did, but they started up again. Now they are coming every night." Alessa turned down the path to Alex's house. "They are getting worse and worse each night. I'm starting to be afraid to sleep."

"Then maybe we should have a sleepover," Alex proposed. "When you wake up in terror and a cold sweat, you can crawl under the covers with me and I'll make everything all right."

Alessa slapped him and he rubbed his reddening cheek. "There's the Alessa I know," he said with a wide grin. He unlocked the front door, knowing that it would be locked. There were no cars in the driveway, meaning his parents weren't home. "Maybe you'd give a soon-to-be-killed man one last request and join me on my bed."

"How many times am I going to turn you down before you'll give up?" Alessa asked.

"Well, according to Uncle Tucker's rules, I won't give up until you sleep with me, that or I die. It's how my dad got my dad," Alex said.

"I thought that was because of my mom locking them in a closet for 10 hours," Alessa said.

"Well, a mixture of both," Alex admitted as he opened the door. He right away moved up the stairs to his room to put away his things while Alessa made herself at home.

~Chapter 2 end~


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I don't own anything form Red Vs Blue or Silent Hill.

Silent Gulch: Retribution Chapter 3

Alessa snuggled up a bit closer to Church's side, enjoying the warmth. She felt safe and secure with her father to protect her. The darkness around them was consuming and no light seemed to penetrate it. She couldn't tell where they were, but she knew she hated this place. The only thing that kept her from running was Church's presence.

The soldier, though, was nervous and tense. Alessa glanced over, spotting the bloody sacrificial knife in his hand. She noticed the blood that covered his hand and the cut on his arm. She buried her face into his shirt and was met by the scent of blood. She backed away quickly, staring at the blood-soaked man.

Church looked at her, confused. "What's wrong?" he asked, scanning the darkness for any possible threats that could be causing Alessa's actions.

"Why are you covered in blood?" Alessa asked, though she felt it was a stupid question. He was always covered in blood in all her dreams. In fact, she couldn't remember a single dream where he wasn't covered in blood.

Church frowned at her. "You already know why." Church stood up. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine; I'm just a bit confused. Where are we?" Alessa asked again.

"We're in Silent Hill, where we've always been," Church answered.

"And where exactly is Silent Hill?" Alessa asked.

"Hell if I know. I'm not the one that lives here. Don't you even know where you own hometown is?" Church asked.

"I don't know of any Silent Hill," Alessa stated. The silence of the darkness was broken by air raid sirens. "What is that?"

"Never something good." Church looked around them as though something would attack them at any moment.

Alessa backed away, her head starting to hurt. A pair of large muscular arms wrapped around her from behind. She was pinned against a warm body and she screamed. She struggled against the grip. Her hands searched for a weapon and they finally found an object. She looked over her shoulder to see the pyramid head that held her captive. She closed her eyes and swung the object. It broke against her attacker's head and he let go.

She opened her eyes to see she was standing in Alex's living room. She turned, looking down to see Alex lying on the floor.

"Alex, what happened?" she asked, noticing the cut on his forehead as he sat up groaning in pain, rubbing his head.

"I went up for a few seconds and you fell asleep on the couch," Alex answered. "I was making us some snacks when you started freaking out. Started shouting about a place called Silent Hill and thrashing about. I grabbed you to keep you from hurting yourself and in return you broke a vase over my head."

Alessa was about to apologize when the front door opened. Grif stepped in and stared at the two teenagers. "What are you two doing?"

"Alessa just smashed a vase over my head," Alex answered as he stood up, reaching up to wipe some of the blood off of his forehead.

"I told you not to be so aggressive in hitting on her or she'll hurt you. Just wait till your dad sees that cut." Grif frowned at the eighteen-year-old boy.

"Oh, you know it's not like that, Dad," Alex defended. "Alessa had another nightmare. She hit me with it while I was trying to keep her from hurting herself."

Grif frowned and turned to Alessa. "Tucker said you'd started having the nightmares again. Don't blame you, though, for hitting him with a vase, it might do him some good."

"Uncle Grif, do you know of a place called Silent Hill?" Alessa asked.

Grif froze, dropping the groceries that he had been carrying. "What did you just say?" he asked.

"Silent Hill, do you know of it?" Alessa demanded, taking a step toward Grif. She didn't understand why he'd reacted the way he did, but to her it meant he knew something.

"Forget you know that name," Grif demanded. "Forget that you ever heard that name."

"No, you know about it, tell me what you know," Alessa demanded. "My dad said that was where we were. That it was my hometown. What aren't you telling me?"

Grif ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. Simmons came into the room, looking down at the dropped groceries.

"Damn it Dexter, couldn't you at least have taken them to the counter?" Simmons asked.

Grif turned to him, very serious. "Call Tex and get her here right now," he ordered.

"Why should I do that?" Simmons asked, glaring at his partner.

"She's why." Grif looked at Alessa. "Ask him what you asked me."

"What do you know about Silent Hill?" Alessa asked. She was really getting annoyed by being left out of the conversation.

Simmons froze, looking horrified. "I'll call Tex." He slipped into the kitchen, quickly grabbing the phone and dialing the Freelancer's phone number.

"Sit down and stay here," Grif ordered. He waited until the two teens were seated before he, too, went to the kitchen.

Alessa and Alex sat in silence the sound of Simmons talking on the phone. The sound of Grif pacing on the tile floor seemed loud in the stillness.

"What's going on, Alessa? Why are you so interested in this Silent Hill place?" Alex asked, trying to keep his tone quiet so that his fathers wouldn't hear.

"I don't know what's going on. My dad said that we were in Silent Hill in my dream. I know that we were there. I just don't know when, or what happened," Alessa answered. "From their reaction I think your dads know."

Alex sat rubbing his knuckles nervously. "Something is wrong. I've never seen dad be that serious. I mean, he was actually giving us orders." Alex continued fidgeting as he spoke.

"Whatever it is, I'm going to find out," Alessa said, determined. "I always felt my mom was keeping something from me, something about my father."

"I hope you don't regret finding it," Alex said, reaching over and taking her hand. "I really do," he added sincerely.

"What makes you think I'd regret it?" Alessa asked, confused.

"I don't really know, I just don't think you'll like it. You've told me the nightmares. They don't seem to point to anything good," Alex reasoned, though something inside him told him that she wouldn't like anything that was there.

"I don't care. I can't stand not knowing." Alessa looked toward the front door as it opened.

Tex walked in, spotting her daughter. They stared at each other in an awkward silence.

"Tell me about Silent Hill," Alessa finally demanded.

Tex sighed, moving to stand before her daughter. "Let it go, Alessa. Forget you ever heard of that place," Tex instructed. "Where did you hear it anyway?" The Freelancer glanced toward the kitchen and the two Red soldiers.

"They didn't tell me," Alessa assured her mother, sparing Grif and Simmons any blame. "Uncle Grif told me to forget about it. Neither of them will tell me anything. I heard it in the nightmare I just had. Dad said it was where we were. Then some guy with a pyramid helmet grabbed me, but it was just Alex."

Tex glanced over at Alex then back to Alessa. "Honey, I know you want to know about your dreams, but you need to forget about that place. There's nothing good there. Your father understood that. It's why he got you out of there."

Alessa was silent for a moment. "I know you're trying to protect me but I need to know. I know you are keeping something from me about Dad. If you won't tell me what really happened to him, then tell me about Silent Hill."

Tex frowned and shook her head. "No, I will not tell you about that place. I never even want to think about that place or hear its name ever again." Her tone made it clear that this was the final word. "Come on, we're going home," she said, heading to the door.

Alessa glanced at Alex before she stood up. She was sure to grab her backpack before she headed to the door. She stopped in the doorway and turned back.

"Sorry about the vase…and your head."

"Don't worry, it was just my head. We'll be billing you for the vase later though." Alex waved goodbye to his friend as Simmons examined the cut on his forehead, the first aid kit out and open next to him.

Alessa tossed her backpack in the back seat before she climbed into the front passenger seat of her mother's car. They were silent for a good portion of the ride home.

Halfway home Alessa spoke. "I know you keep things from me, but I need to know if one thing is true. Is Dad really dead?"

Tex sighed at the question. "I'd never lie to you about that. I saw him die myself," she answered, not taking her eyes from the road.

"Did he really die in the war?" Alessa asked. She'd never really believed that part. She'd been unable to find a battle record for him.

"Not in any war that you'll find in a history book," Tex answered. "Put it out of your mind and forget that place. Know that your father died protecting you and that he wouldn't want you to go after that place." They fell back into silence.

~End chapter 3~

A/N: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please read and review. To deathwing: Please sign your reviews so that I can give a proper response to requests. Thank you and enjoy the chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I don't own Silent Hill or Red vs Blue.

Silent Gulch 2 Chapter 4

Alessa sat at her desk in her room staring down at her partially finished trigonometry homework. Her eyes wandered to the picture on her desk. It was from her tenth birthday when they'd gathered in the park. Her mother had been sure to make sure that all the decorations were blue and had burned the red decorations that Sarge had tried to put up. The reds and blues had both gathered deciding that celebrating her birthday was more important then what team they were on. It had been an important birthday since it was the first birthday that she'd celebrated officially with the last name of Church and because it had been her first birthday since Grif and Simmons had adopted Alex. The other kids at her school would tease her constantly because she lived in the military controlled community. Alex had never teased her for that, it was why they'd become such close friends so easily. She smiled as she remembered that he'd forgotten to get her a gift and had offered to give her one of his dads to replace her missing one. She'd hit him hard enough to make his nose bleed. Publicly Tex has scolded her for it but when they got home she praised her for having a good punch. She'd been forced to apologize the next day to Alex and she had reluctantly done so, quickly followed by threatening to break his nose if he ever insulted or insinuated that her father could be replaced. Alex never directly insulted her father again, but he had started taking Tucker's advice. It as just proof to her that Alex would likely grow up to be more like Grif then Simmons and there was nothing the reds could do to change it.

Alessa pulled herself out of her thoughts realizing she'd spaced out for almost ten minutes. She glanced down at her homework to find she'd doodled on it. She'd doodled some odd symbols and an oddly familiar eagle. She stared at it trying to figure out where she'd seen it. It took her a while to finally figure it out. It was a cruder version of the eagle on the cover of the journal she'd found. She'd grabbed her backpack and rifled though it until she found the journal. She placed it on the desk comparing the two images. They were almost the same image of an eagle with crossed swords in the back ground, though the one on her homework was less professional. She opened it and flipped through the pages finding a second entry. The hand writing was still sloppy but at the same time it somehow seemed more confident and sure of what it was writing.

_Dear whoever the hell is reading this,_

Apparently I'm not enough. I should have known it was too easy. It let them all go so easily even gave me both of them. It's not enough though. It wants the Other though and It won't stop until It has the Other. I don't even know if I should stop It. The Other is just as guilty as me if not more. It's been reaching out to new places. It gives me new places to explore at least. He has been following me for some reason that I can't figure out. Not threatening or anything, just following all the time. Guess it doesn't matter as long as He doesn't hurt anything. I really do hate Silent Hill.

A guilty one

P.S. Seriously, why are you reading this you freak?

Alessa stared at the words on the page. They didn't make much sense but she was fixated on two words. The reference to Silent Hill only confused her more. She tossed and turned for the rest of the night trying make sense of what she's read only falling asleep long enough to be plagued by her dreams again.

The next day Alessa dragged Alex behind the gym at the school so that they could talk. "I know you're eager to make out but you don't' have to drag me. I'd come willingly." Alex joked. His face suddenly collided with a hard text book.

"Would you cut that out? Sometimes I think you have some weird fetish that makes you give me reasons to hit you because it's how you get off."Alessa said the physics text book still out ready to strike.

"No, no, I learn by osmosis, hit me again." Alex said jokingly. The book hit him again and he fell to the ground clutching his head. "Ow, I think I forgot what osmosis means."

"Why couldn't you be more like Simmons?" Alessa asked putting away the text book in her backpack rather disappointed with her friend.

"Cause then you wouldn't love me so much. Uncle Tucker always says that Grif is like the Church of Red team." Alex answered struggling to his feet. "Please don't' hit me again for mentioning your dad."

"Could you just focus for a minute? There was another entry in the journal last night." Alessa said trying to get them back on track.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Alex asked confused. "And what's with you and hitting me in the head?"

"I'm talking about the journal that I found in my locker yesterday. When I first read it there was only one entry. Last night though I was doing my homework and then I doodled this eagle that's also on the cover of the journal." She said pulling out the journal. "When I read it last night it had a second entry in it. Look at what it mentioned."

Alex took the journal and read the entry. He sighed slamming the book shut. "You mean the reference to that place." Alex said and Alessa nodded. "I really think you should let it go. I asked my dads about it after you left yesterday. They said that it's an awful place that's a living nightmare. You do realize that whoever wrote this thing is obviously crazy?"

"The writer's not crazy, they're just leaving out some facts. They are just writing like we know what It, the Other, and He is." Alessa argued. "That doesn't make a person crazy."

"It also doesn't make Silent Hill a good place." Alex said stopping suddenly looking up toward the sky. "Is it snowing?"

Alessa looked up and held her hand out. A flake hit her hand and she examined it. It isn't snow, it's ashes." Alessa corrected.

"Damn, what new thing did the military fuck up this time?" Alex muttered frowning as he stared up. "Alessa you really need to let this go." He said flatly though there was a hint of something else in his voice.

Alessa watched her friend silently for a moment studying the worried look on his face. "Alex, what aren't you telling me?"

Alex didn't answer right away. "When my dads were talking last night they said some things. They brought up the murder of that Henry guy. They said they were worried that Silent Hill had been the cause."

An odd silence filled the air. "How the hell can a place kill a person?" Alessa asked confused by the teenager's statement.

"I don't know but they talked about it more like it was a person then a place." Alex explained. "It was kind of weird."

"I know you want me to let it go but I can't and this only makes me want to know more. I want to know how a place can kill a person. I want to know why they are all so afraid. Why is it that none of them will talk about it?" Alessa said. "Aren't you the least bit curious?"

"Yeah, I'm curious but I'm not foolish. I wonder why my dad is afraid of bats but I'm not about to go find a cave of them to find out why." Alex answered.

"Your dad's fear of bats is just proof that he's a pansy. Unlike your family and their irrational fears my family is strong. No one in my family is afraid of anything." Alessa stated. The fear that she'd seen in her father's eyes in her dream flashed through her mind.

"Your mom looked afraid of that place when you asked about it last night." Alex pointed out.

"She was not afraid and nether am I." Alessa nearly shouted pushing Alex down. She glared at her friend for a moment before she turned and left. She made her way directly to the library. If any place had information about Silent Hill it would be the library.

The library at the school was the only library for public use for the military families that lived in the area so it was well funded and had been done to look as though it had been built in ancient Rome. Out front of the library stood a bronze statue in honor of those that had died during the human-covenant war. Alessa had always though it was a stupid statue. It was based off the famous raising of the American flag in Mount Suribachi but rather then American soldiers it was a UNSC flag being raised by a marine, two ODST, and a Spartan. Alessa wouldn't have hated the statue so much if it weren't for the fact the whole thing was made up. No marines and Spartan had raised a flag anywhere, that's not how the war had gone. The image that the statue portrayed was as true as what her mother had told her about her father's military career. She walked right past the statue up the triple set of stairs that lead up to the building. She stopped at the top of the stairs as someone called out to her. Alessa turned to find Alex running up the stairs after her. "What do you want?" Alessa asked.

Alex sighed knowing she was still mad at him. "I think you're stupid for wanting to pursue this but I'd be a terrible friend if I let you go after something that could be dangerous without help."

Alessa smiled and nodded." We've wasted enough time already with your stupidity, let's not waste any more." Alessa said turning and entering the main doors.

~End Chapter 4~

A/N: Here's chapter 4 I hope that you enjoy it. Please do read and review it. I apologize for any typos that you see. I'm working on trying to find a better way to fix them and keep there from being any typos. Sadly it is 300 times harder then you would think.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I don't own Silent Hill or Red vs Blue.

Silent Gulch: Retribution Chapter 5

The library was oddly empty as Alex and Alessa went to work. Alessa went to searching the date base for references to Silent Hill while Alex read over the two entries in the journal again. "There's something weird about these journal entries." Alex pointed out. "He capitalizes the first letter of the words 'it', 'other', and 'he'. It's like he's referring to them as people and they are just his name for them."

"Well we can't figure out who they are until we figure out who wrote it." Alessa said feeling the urge to slap the terminal in front of her. "Damn I can't find any good references to a Silent Hill."

"Then we just have to find a guilty guy that's lost in a closet or something with a burnt out light." Alex simplified. "Maybe our parents aren't the only ones that don't want us to know about this place."

"I just don't understand why they don't want us to know." Alessa said scrolling through a long list of books and links. She looked over a sight of what were considered first hand accounts from people that had gone to a haunted town and one of the entries called it Silent Hill. There was something odd about them and a few names stuck out at her mainly the name Harry that was attached to one entry and the name James that was attached to another. She made a note of the web sight and moved back to look over the results of her search. "Oh, this one looks promising."

"What is it?" Alex asked moving over to look over her shoulder. "How would a book about secret cults help us?"

"There's a chapter on something called the order. It says here it's a cult that supposedly originated in Silent Hill." Alessa explained quickly grabbing a paper and writing down the call number. She stood up and moved off to search for the book.

"The entries didn't really mention anything called The Order." Alex pointed out. "How do you know it's linked to your dreams, or your dad?"

Alessa stopped and turned to look at her friend. "Who said this had anything to do with my dad?" She asked an edge to her voice that warned him to be careful about his choice of words.

"No one, you've just always said that he's in these dreams, that he's the one that told you that Silent Hill was where you were. It stands to reason that he is involved." Alex answered pausing for a moment to try to decide what to do next. "You know about that guy that was murdered?"

"Yeah Uncle Tucker told us all about it the day that it happened." Alessa answered knowing that the teenage boy was just trying to change the subject to avoid being hit. She didn't blame him and she really didn't want to bother with getting angry at the moment. She was more focused on finding the book she was looking for. "What about it?"

"Well you know that they say they thought it was a bear. I've been thinking, there aren't any bears here." Alex stated. "So if it wasn't a bear what was it?"

"I don't know, maybe the military has some monster that got loose and doesn't want us to know about so they are covering their asses." Alessa guessed. "Ah, here it is." She said pulling a book from the shelf. She looked between the book and the written number. "This should be the right book but it's not."

"If it's not the book about cults then what is it?" Alex asked glancing around at the books around them. They were all about animals and plants and what a book about cults would be doing here was beyond him.

"It looks like a bible of some kind. It's not the bible of any religion that I recognize. I took those classes on religion as my elective last year. You take those classes and you see the reasoning as to why I hate all religion. I'm sure though that whatever religion this is I'll probably hate it as well." Alessa answered moving off down the aisle.

"Where are you going?" Alex asked walking quickly to keep up with the young woman. He was getting a bit annoyed by her always leaving him behind. He'd told her that he wanted to help but here she was acting as though he was only along for the ride.

"I'm going to read this thing." Alessa answered moving back to the table they'd been sitting at earlier. She opened the book pulling out a piece of paper. "This page isn't from this book." She said recognizing the hand writing from the journal and the different shaded paper. She quickly read it over and turned to look at Alex. "When Uncle Grif and Simmons adopted you did you keep your last name?"

Alex was confused by the rather random question. "Yeah, I couldn't decide on which last name to take since my dads don't have the same last name so I stuck with Shepherd. Why the sudden question?" The only reply he got was Alessa pushing the paper toward him.

~Elsewhere~

Tex paced across the living room nervously. "Try to calm down. Maybe she'll just let it go." Tucker said watching the freelancer from his seat in the large plush arm chair.

"I know that she won't let it go. I taught her to go after what she wants. God, why did I teach her that?" Tex asked in frustration. "We need to think of a way to keep her from pursuing this."

"Maybe you should sign her up for the red army." Sarge suggested. "They'll take her mind off of it and on to killing all blues."

"I'm not signing her up to be a dirty red." Tex said turning to Tucker and glaring at him. "I swear that if you say those four words your death will be slow and painful."

"Come on, I'd never use it in correlation to her." Tucker defended. "I don't think there is a way to stop her."

"Maybe you should try teaching her to bake, or sew." Donut suggested studying the drapes in the connected dinning room.

"I'm not even that good at those, how could I teach her, and stop trying to redecorate my house." Tex scolded the pink soldier.

"Maybe you should encourage her to explore getting a job. I could teach her a thing or two." Sister offered.

"Oh hell no that's not about to happen. It's bad enough that Alex is always hitting on her and she's been asking me questions about guys. The last thing I need is for her to start flirting back and become a slut like you." Tex said silencing the slutty blue.

"I think that you've been an over protective mother. She's seventeen and she'd rather punch a guy then date him. At this rate the only kind of person she'll find is a guy like Church. Ow, stop hitting me." Tucker complained glaring up at the freelancer.

"I'm just afraid that she'll drag Alex into all this Silent Hill stuff. That would only make things worse." Grif said worried.

"Why would that make things worse?" Tex asked taking a step toward the red couple on the couch. Grif looked away avoiding her. Tex moved a bit closer towering over them. "If you keep something from me that would put my daughter in danger I will take out every one of your bones slowly so you don't die, put them back in the most painful way and in the wrong places, tie meat to you and toss you into the forest for the wolves."

"We think Alex might be connected to Silent Hill." Simmons blurted out. He looked at Grif apologetically then back to Tex. "We aren't completely sure but Alex has this birthmark that kind of looks like it could be from Silent Hill but we aren't sure."

"I told you that we should have told them all about it." Grif stated.

"No you didn't. You are the one that said that it was a rash and that it would go away. I told you it was a birth mark and thought it looked like something." Simmons argued.

"Smooth move, you just admitted that you are the one that decided not to tell them about it." Grif pointed out.

Tex slapped her hand to her forehead. "This is going to get very bad." As if on cue the sound of sirens rang out around them.

~Library~

"There has to be a mistake." Alex stated. "It's just coincidence, it doesn't mean anything." He stared down rereading the journal entry as though that would change the words on the page.

_Dear Whoever,_

It can't make up its mind if I'm free to roam or not. Yesterday I was in a ruined city then today I woke up in Alex's house. I feel disturbed that the Shepherd's property seems to be my new home. I've been finding odd pictures all over the house. I recognized Alex from the other pictures but these are different. In these pictures Alex is with Her. It told me It sent him to Her, to protect Her. I don't know if I trust It but there's nothing I can do. At least It didn't send James to protect Her, I mean look at what happened to his wife. I have no say in the matter though so how I feel doesn't matter. I'll sit here in this house remembering how right She was in what She said when we sat here so long ago. I'll check for new pictures every day just to have the feel that I'm a part of Her life and not so alone. I'll sit here talking to Him as though He'll talk back until it is time. Until It decides that it needs us.

The Servant

"It's not a mistake." Alessa stated. "There's a story in this book of an Alex Shepherd." She said pointing to the page of the bible. She'd been flipping though it while he was freaking out over the journal entry.

Alex didn't speak for a long time. "The writer capitalized 'her'. What do you think that means?" Alex asked trying to change the subject. He didn't want to think about what he'd read.

"She would have to be me." Alessa reasoned. "I'm the only girl you know. Who else could it mean?" Aless asked.

"That's assuming that the Alex he talks about is me. You can't assume stuff like that." Alex pointed out. "How do we know that this even has the slightest to do with ether of us? Not to mention I know Sister and your mother, they are both girls."

"How can you prove that it doesn't have to do with us?" Alessa asked not convinced that the journals weren't talking about them.

"Well it doesn't say your name anywhere. From his language the capitalized pronouns and such are more of…well they seem alive but not human. If it was referring to you why wouldn't he use your name? Not to mention that it says that Alex was sent to protect Her and if a fight happened I'd be hiding behind you."

"Both of those are surprisingly reasonable points that I don't have an argument against. So if it's not referring to you then who?" Alessa asked.

"Well we'd have to figure out who's writing this journal to find out." Alex said glancing over at the bible. "What else does that thing say?"

"I don't know, I haven't read the rest." Alessa answered turning to look out the window. "Those don't sound like the normal air raid sirens." She said referring to the sirens that were ringing through the air.

"No those are not, and this isn't a test day." Alex agreed. The teens were suddenly plunged into darkness as the lights went out.

~Far away~

He sat playing with the knife in his hand. He looked over at the assortment of other weapons he'd gathered. The pipes, knives, axes, and guns that he'd found all over. He also had a few odd weapons that were rather out of the ordinary like his katana which he really did enjoy using. "I know it's over used, but it's the waiting that kills me. Well that and all the stuff that keeps stabbing and cutting me." He said glancing over his shoulder at Him. "Sometimes I wish you could talk so I don't feel like I'm talking to myself." He said moving through the house like a ghost. He didn't feel comfortable here, this wasn't his home though it was where he lived. The pictures of Alex and his family made him feel unwelcome here. As thought the family was always watching him in every room, he had no where to be alone. Not that He really helped, all He did was watching him no matter  
where he went.

He stopped as the sounds of sirens echoed around them. "I guess it's time." He said turning to look at Him. He gathered up his weapons making sure they were all secured to him before turning back to Him. "Read to play?" He asked a slightly psychotic smirk on his face.

There was a moment of silence as He reached for His sword. A rumble shook through the house as He replied. He smiled at the reply before the pair were plunged into the darkness.

~End chapter 5~

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed chapter 5. I'll get out chapter 6 next Saturday. In the mean time please do read and review. All reviews are appreciated.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I don't own Red vs Blue or Silent Hill.

Chapter 6

Light returned to the world slowly, though it was all tinted red. The soldiers sat in the living room, watching as the world around them peeled away to become the other world. The wallpaper peeled away to become plates of rusted metal. The furniture became old and faded beneath them but none of them bothered to stand up.

"Aw, now I have to completely start over on my decorating plan," Donut said.

"Could you stay focused and think about the kinds of horrors that descend whenever those sirens go off?" Sarge scolded the young private.

"Where did Tex go?" Tucker asked, looking around the living room for the woman. "I'm not facing this shit again without someone that can fight."

"Where is Church? I need Church to save me from the bad things," Caboose said, starting to panic. "I need to find Church."

"Caboose, Church is dead, you know that," Tucker stated. "You need to let it go dude. We need to focus on the present, like how we're currently boned."

Tex appeared in the entryway, gun in hand. "You guys going to get your asses moving? I'm going to get the kids. You can ether stay here or come with."

"I'm with you," Grif said, standing up. "So, are we going to take your car or mine to get them?" he asked checking again to see if he still had the keys to his car.

"I never thought I'd see the day that you would be the first to take action," Tucker said, surprised by the orange soldier's willingness to do work.

"He's full of surprises like that," Simmons informed the teal soldier. "Like that time he punched out that MP for saying that us being a couple was creepy."

"Dude, I really don't want to hear about what you and your life partner do in the night," Tucker said frowning. "Besides, this isn't a guy being homophobic of you two. This is taking on a world full of horrors."

"My son is in danger. I'll do whatever I have to in order to protect him, even if that means actually taking action and doing work," Grif explained.

Simmons stood up beside Grif. "I'm with him. I'll get us some knives from the kitchen. If we meet up with anything I don't want us to be useless."

"Is anyone worried by the fact we aren't scared as hell?" Sister asked. "I mean, isn't that a sign that we actually are as crazy as the military thinks we are?"

"We have kids to be worried about. We don't have time for worrying about ourselves. Not to mention no monsters have attacked us. Also, not to mention that the military doesn't think we're crazy because we'll face monsters, but because we killed one of our fellow soldiers and buried him and then made up a story about monsters," Grif stated. He took a knife when offered to him by Simmons. "All right, let's go."

Tex led them out the front door. She moved to her car and got in trying to start it but found that its wouldn't. She tried several times but it was always the same.

"Looks like we're going to have to walk. Should have expected it, nothing ever works right when that damn town's involved," she said giving up on the car. She led them down the street keeping an eye out for any monsters that might attack them. "They're probably at school so that's where we'll start." She suddenly stopped as she noticed a figure in the street.

"Is that who I think it is?" Tucker asked taking a step closer to the figure, trying to be sure of who it was standing before them.

The figure turned to look at them surprised. "Tucker, Tex, what's going on?" he asked, confused, and moved toward them. He looked exactly as he had ten years ago, only without the blood and cuts.

"Silent Hill seems to be invading the base we're living on," Tex answered, still keeping her gun at the ready unsure of the man before her. "We're on our way to get Alessa and Alex. How did you get here, Church?"

Church simply shrugged at the question. "I don't really know the answer to that, I just arrived here. I really don't know anything about a base but I'll just roll with it. That seems to work out for me," Church said looking around nervously. "So, where are we going again?"

"We're going to the high school to get our daughter," Tex answered. "You know…our daughter …Alessa."

"I know who Alessa is, didn't know she was your daughter too. What is Alessa doing at a high school though? She's only seven years old," Church asked, trying to figure out exactly what piece of information he was missing.

"Church, Alessa's seventeen. It's been ten years since we were at Silent Hill," Tucker told him. "You've been gone for ten years."

Church was silent then sighed. "It was only yesterday for me," he told them, shaking his head to try to clear his mind. "Come on, you can fill me in on the way to the school," he said, motioning for Tex to lead the way.

There was a moment of hesitation before Tex took the lead and started to explain to Church everything that had happened since they'd been at Silent Hill. She also left out bits as he seemed to have been completely unaware of his death that they'd seen. She left out the fact that he was always in Alessa's dreams, and she was glad that the others didn't bother trying to correct what she was leaving out.

By the time they'd reached the guard post Church was caught up on everything that had happened. He stopped them, though, before they got to close to the guard post. "I don't think I can go past this point."

"Why not, don't you want to help Alessa? Or is it that Silent Hill won't let you? Or, are you not really Church?" Tex asked still unsure about Church. He seemed like the same Church that she remembered, but he wasn't the same Church that had died back in Silent Hill to her. Her hand tightened around her gun, trying to move it so that it wasn't in Church's line of sight. She was watching him carefully, taking a slight step toward him.

"That's not it and I can't believe that you don't believe I'm me," Church defended, offended that she would say that he didn't care about his daughter. "It's just that I don't have any good reasoning as to how I got into a secure military community with no ID. I want to help Alessa but I can't risk holding you all back," The black-haired man glanced over his shoulder at the sound of barking dogs.

"Dude, what was that sound? We aren't allowed to have dogs here. Caboose tried to get one and they said it was against the rules," Tucker said, looking the same way as Church.

"They are probably ferals; you don't want to meet them. You guys go ahead and get Alessa. I'll hold off the ferals so that the guards don't see them. If they see them then they aren't going to let anyone out of here," Church ordered.

"Are you sure about this? I mean, can you handle the ferals?" Tucker asked not sure if the cobalt soldier was biting off more than he could chew. He, too, felt like something was different from the last time that he'd seen the other solider.

Church pulled out a lead pipe and nodded. "I'm sure; I know how to handle them," Church assured him, turning to face the monstrous dogs that were quickly approaching.

"Dude, where did you get that lead pipe?" Tucker asked, wondering where he might have picked it up. It looked familiar.

"What do you mean? I got it from you when I killed the hare," Church answered back. "I've been killing ferals with it since then."

"Dude, you gave it back to me. You just used that weird knife of yours," Tucker told him confused. "Wait, how many ferals have you killed?"

"Well, if I didn't get it from you, then I don't really know where I got it. Must have picked it up at some point when I decided I wanted more defense," Church reasoned, ignoring his other question. "Stop wasting time and get going. If my daughter dies because you are standing here chit-chatting with me then I will shove this pipe up your ass and leave it there," Church threatened.

"Don't have to be all mean," Tucker said, frowning at the other man. "Good luck with the ferals, whatever they are," he said before moving off with the others to go through the guard post.

* * *

Alex and Alessa looked around as light returned to the world around them. "That was weird," Alex said, shrugging.

A humming filled the air and Alessa looked around trying to find the source. "Do you hear that?" she asked standing up trying to hear the humming better.

Alex looked at her confused. "I don't hear anything," Alex answered, listening to the silence. He didn't hear anything, not even the normal sounds of an empty library. It was odd.

"Stay here I'm going to find the source," Alessa said closing up the bible and moving off down the aisles of book cases.

She wandered through the library until she caught sight of a female figure turning a corner. As she caught sight of the woman, a clear singing voice replaced the humming.

_"Where is Steven, mommy? He can't play and I'm sad. _  
_You mustn't ask, my darling-Steven has been bad. _  
_Bill too, and Sally? Did they do something wrong? _  
_I'm afraid it's true, child- all your friends are gone."_

"Excuse me, who are you?" Alessa asked following the figure. "Why are you singing that song?"

The figure moved faster and Alessa picked up her pace to keep up with it.

_"Beware of he who took them- he goes by many names. _  
_The Bogeyman, the Shadowed One, but all are he, the same. _  
_For every sin a child has, must be a punishment to bear._  
_Your friends are now beyond our reach, trapped deep within his lair._

The voice seemed to get clearer and clearer with each line of the song.

_And if they take what is not theirs, there can be no doubt. _  
_He'll stretch their skin until it snaps, and all the blood drains out. _  
_Remember to always behave, for sins he won't abide. _  
_He wields a rusty, jagged blade, to cut out your insides. _  
_The lying little children, with souls selfish and small. _  
_Will find their wriggling tongues cut out, and nailed to his wall. _  
_The bullies and their spiteful wrath will find torment as well. _  
_Soon he will strike them where they stand and drag them into hell,"_

Alessa had almost caught up to the woman, when a shadowy silhouette caught her full attention. There was a very large, monstrous figure doing something at the end of the aisle she stood before. Entranced by what was going on, and wanting to know who the figure was, Alessa started to move down the aisle toward the action.

_"Child, you must obey your parents, do everything they say._  
_Little ones who do otherwise, he tortures in the flames. _  
_Beatings cleanse the soul, they say, and that is what he'll do. _  
_If you don't control your anger then you'll feel his anger to._  
_And while the good children live, the bad ones cannot escape their fate. _  
_For once you hear his screeching wail, it's already too late. _  
_So do not cry aloud at night, stay hidden in your bed. _  
_Or the Bogeyman from Silent Hill will come chop off your head."_

Alessa moved closer to the figure and, slowly, pyramid head came into focus. The monster was working at something, causing blood to drip down onto the ground in a steady pattern . There was the sound of slicing and something tearing through flesh, causing an increase in the blood that fell down onto the ground.

The cutting stopped and was followed a moment later by bones cracking and blood raining down onto the carpet below as the pyramid head ripped something open. The monster grabbed in and then came the sick sound of organs hitting the ground with a sickly wet slap. There was the sound of something being pushed out of the way and a few more organs hitting the ground as the pyramid head tore something out of the victim.

Alessa leaned against the book case as the smell of blood and death filled her senses, making her feel sick. She could taste the blood on her tongue as the stench rolled through the air. The contents of the stomach had spilled out mixing, the smell of blood and partially digested food.

Alessa felt vomit well up in the back of her throat as the monster turned, revealing what it had ripped out. Its right hand reached out, gripping the handle of its great blade, while the left hand held out the out heart of the monster's victim.

There was a moment when Alessa knew that the monster was looking directly at her and she froze. The memory of her dream and pyramid head's arms wrapped around her came to mind as she felt his gaze. There was no aggression in the air but the feel of the monster's gaze on her still sent chills down her spine. After a moment, pyramid head started to moved forward walking down the aisle past Alessa.

Alessa continued to watch the monster lumbered past her, seemingly in no hurry to go anywhere. When the pyramid head had passed her far enough that the great blade was past her she turned her attention to the monster's victim. She recognized the person right away as James Sunderland. She had met him a few times when he'd been hanging around with Tucker.

The man's rib cage had been torn open by the monster like they had been doors to a cabinet. The organs had tumbled out into a pile on the ground and fresh blood still dripped from the body. James had been held a foot off the ground by barbed wire which had been wrapped around his wrists. There were cut marks along his body and a large cut along his throat.

The horror of the fact that this was not one of her dreams hit her like a weight. She doubled over emptying the contents of her stomach onto the ground. She swayed for a moment and fell to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

Alex watched Alessa walk away until she was out of sight. "I don't hear anything. Not to mention that this proves I'm not the Alex he was talking about," Alex muttered jumping as a man approached the table across from him. "Um, who are you?" Alex asked nervously.

The man didn't reply for a moment, instead placing a bloody knife onto the table. Alex noted that the man's hands were also covered in blood. Alex didn't recognize the man at all and was wary of him, unsure how he got so much blood on him. He had with him more than the knife by the looks of the sword slung over his back and the gun that was holstered at the man's side.

"Here we are still doing Its bidding," the man said, shaking his head. "We follow this path It places before us. That which decides which turns we take are never clear."

Alex looked at the man trying to make sense of his words."What are you talking about?" he asked not understanding what the man was talking about. His language though was familiar. The wording seemed so precise, as though he had heard it somewhere or read it somewhere. It almost reminded him of the way a preacher spoke.

The man watched Alex carefully, studying him. "You don't recognize me, know who I am?" the man asked.

"I've never met you before in my life," Alex asserted. "I don't see how I could know you unless you're a crazy person like my dads are supposed to be. I don't meet many people other than them."

"So that is what you think. It has a sense of humor for sure. I feel that you are failing in your duty. Here you are sitting and you don't know where She is," the man said, reaching out and grabbing the journal. "I thought Adam taught you not to steal from others."

"Hey, that journal belongs to Alessa. Give it back," Alex demanded, standing up and glaring at the man, despite the large number of weapons that the man had on him. He didn't even know where the moment of courage had come from. He knew that he could be stupid at times but no amount of stupidity would make him stand up to an armed man over a book. Maybe it was because leaving him behind to protect their stuff was the only thing Alessa had let him do to help her. It made it all the more important to protect what they had, even if it was just a book.

"It is as though you are trying to call him here to punish you. You steal, you cannot control your anger, and you disobey your parents." There was an odd pause as the man slowly started to smile. "Those words sound odd coming from me. In fact I believe that you and I both grew up the same way. I have always made it clear to you that I find no fault in your actions, decisions, or hatred. You had every right to be mad. In fact I believe that it is our mutual hatred for the same things that lead us to be able to trust each other. Maybe it is also the fact that given the choice and knowing full well we were risking it all, we both went to that place. This trust is the reason why I have trusted you with Her protection and cannot accept failure in this duty. I cannot make myself any clearer on that," the man said seriously, his hand inching toward the knife as a silent threat to the young man.

Alex just stared at the man, unable to make sense of the words. He tried to calm himself as he sat back down. "I will not fail you," Alex assured the man hoping that he sounded half as confident as he was trying to. "Why are you here?"

"I am collecting more of what It asks me to. It asks for such odd things to the normal person, but guys like you and I understand why It wants such things. It is not to be questioned, though, so we continue to do as we are ordered," the man answered.

"What is it that it asks for?" Alex asked trying to imitate the man's language as best he could; but he wasn't an actor, never even played a bit part in a school play.

"It asks for what belongs to Marry," the man stated. "He was given a gift and did not appreciate it. He is not like you and I. He does not know how to appreciate a gift as we do. It gave us gifts and we do not take them for granted."

Alex struggled to find the next words to say. This man had obviously confused him with the Alex from the journal. The only way he could find out if that was the case would be to reference it. "So my house has become yours?"

"I fear that it will remain that way for some time. He and I live there but in spirit, heart, and soul, it is still your home. It would stand to reason It would want me close but still at arm's length. With that in mind, your home is the obvious choice. People like us only cause trouble for It, so we are not to be allowed to stay where we might mess up Its plans," the man said. "Finally, the harvest is done. I am afraid, my friend, that I must take my leave. I do hope that you remember who you really are. I would also suggest that you do not pursue an acting career."

Alex opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by the sound of something heavy and metal scraping over carpet. The sound would only stop long enough for the echoing thud of what Alex could only guess was footsteps. Alex turned to see pyramid head moving up the aisles toward the front doors. Something hard hit Alex in the back of the head, and he fell, hitting his head against the desk on his way down. He struggled to keep himself conscious as his world spun around him.

"Remember who you are, Alex. You will need to if you are to protect any of them," the man said, moving over to the desk and grabbing the journal and knife. He paused for a moment and then wiped some of the still-wet blood from the knife blade. He quickly wrote something on the first page of the bible and tossed another book onto the table. He took one last look at Alex before he moved over to pyramid head. "Did you get it?"

The monster seemed angry at the question. Alex watched, eyes wide and mouth hanging open in silent horror and disbelief, as the monster presented the human heart. The man nodded, opening the main doors so that the monster could leave. Pyramid head moved through the doors and the man closed them behind him.

Alex reached out as though he could stop them, make them come back. The image of a nine year old boy running away from him down a dark hallway flashed through his mind for a second, then was gone. There was a thought of Alessa, and whether she was all right before Alex slipped into unconsciousness.

~End Chapter 6~

A/N: First off, the song is not mine. For those of you that have played Silent Hill: Homecoming you will recognize it as the song made by the children's drawings that you can collect. If you've noticed an improvement in my spelling, grammar, and all around writing, thank Martienne who became my beta reader.


	7. Chapter 7

Silent Gulch 2: Retribution Chapter 7

The walk to the high school seemed to take an unimaginably long time. The unspoken fears hung in the air as thick as the fog around them. Tucker had grown bored some time ago and had checked his watch three times already. He glanced over at Tex who faced straight forward, a look of pure determination on her face. There was a slightly glazed look in her eye, though, that betrayed her worry over her daughter.

Donut was chatting away, after three hits from Tex he had hushed it down enough that only Sarge was being tormented by his stories. The Tucker looked back at Grif and Simmons who had both fallen behind some time ago. They walked side by side, occasionally bumping shoulders or hands in what Tucker had learned to be their own way of comforting each other.

"They seriously must get a ride or something to this damn place." Tucker checked his watch again, trying to make time pass faster. They'd already been walking for a half hour. "Either that or they are skipping school to go make out somewhere. Ow!" His hands moved to the back of his head as he received a smack from both Tex and Simmons.

"I understand Tex, but why did you hit me?" Tucker turned to look at Simmons, surprised by his actions.

"Because my son isn't like that." Simmons glared at the once enemy soldier.

"Yeah, he may cut class but there's no way that he could talk Alessa into making out with him." Grif moved up beside Simmons. His hand moved to Simmons' back touching it lightly for only a second before it fell back to Grif's side.

Donut looked around for any buildings or landmarks. "How do we even know we are going in the right direction? With this fog we don't even know what direction we are going." He looked at the others soldiers, who were all frowning at him.

"We're following the road. How could this not be the way to the school?" Simmons raised his eyebrows in disbelief that Donut would ask such a stupid question. "It's not like we're letting Grif lead us. He'd just lead us to the closest buffet."

"Hey, there aren't any good buffets around here." Grif glared at him clenching his fists. "Remember the last time we went there? I ended up with food poisoning."

"Fine then, you'd lead us to the local steak house. Still, neither one of those is the school where our son might be in danger," Simmons clenched his own fists glaring right back. Oddly, the arguing seemed to create a feel of comfort to the others. It was familiar, like presence of a friend.

"Hey, at least I would lead us to the closest superior officer's ass so that you can kiss it." Grif took a step away from Simmons and crossed his arms stubbornly. He looked away from Simmons out into the fog. "In fact, that would be the opposite direction of the school."

"Hey, we went to a school while we were at Silent hill. There were tons of bugs there, and then your tank tried to kill us," Donut smiled at the memory then frowned realizing that it wasn't really a happy memory and at the time he'd been scared to death.

"Donut, this is not Silent Hill. We aren't going to be eaten to death by bugs. Well…this is very Silent Hill-like but it's not Silent Hill." Sarge glared at the younger soldier, standing up a bit taller, daring the pink private to question his statement.

"Can we stop talking about that place? I am still creeped out by that name." Sister wrapped her arms around herself as though just the word made her feel colder. "I'm so scared I've got goose bumps."

"It's all right baby, I'll make sure you're safe." Tucker moved a bit closer to her, leaning over and giving her one of his best charming smiles. "Bow chika bow wow." The cyan soldier ducked as Tex tried to slap him again. "Ha, saw that coming." He didn't see the kick though that got him in the shin.

"Church wasn't the only one that hated that damn catch phrase of yours." Tex made it very clear that the bickering hadn't really affected her. She was still worried and starting to get angry it was taking so long to find her daughter. "I'm with Sister, though, stop saying that damn name. I feel like you saying it is going to make it true."

"Fine, we'll stop saying Silent Hill." Sarge flinched as he received a hit to the side of the head from the Freelancer.

"I said to stop saying that name. Every time that you do I'm going to hit you." Tex turned her attention back to where they were going. She was surprised though to see what looked to be lights up ahead of them. Red and blue beams cut through the fog, switching out in a steady rhythm. "Am I the only person who sees what looks like cop lights ahead?"

"I see them, too. Damn, there are a lot of them." Grif squinted through the fog trying to see. As they moved closer the scene slowly came into view. There were jeeps and Police cars all gathered outside of the library. They even spotted a fire truck and an ambulance.

They didn't rush right over as none of them really wanted to deal with the police. They had delts with them in the past and coming for a crazy community never helped the situation. Grif tilted his head to one side. "Something bad must have happened."

"Do you think it has something to do with the kids?" Simmons asked, causing Grif and Tex to whip their heads to stare at him in horror. There was a pause as the question seemed to sink in before they moved toward the scene.

"Hey, what happened here?" he asked the closest MP, trying to act like he was just another citizen that had been drawn like a moth to the lights.

The MP was obviously new and seemed like he was going to be sick. His face was pale and he seemed unsteady on his feet. It took him a moment to calm himself enough to speak without vomit comeing up with the words. "Sorry sir, that's not open to the public," he answered.

The MP found himself on the ground as Grif pushed him aside forcefully. He moved past the fallen man headedstrait for the ambulance.

"Alex," he called out, approaching the teen that was being looked over by a paramedic. "What happened?"

Alex shook his head and winced as the paramedic placed a bandage over the cut on his forehead. "I don't really know. I think a teacher called the cops but I don't really know what about."

"What is it with you and hitting your head with things?" Grif glanced over his shoulder as Simmons arrived. "Is he all right?" He looked back at the busily working paramedic.

"Yeah, he'll be fine. It's just a bump on the head." The paramedic finished up the bandaging. "I take it that you must be this kid's parents."

"Yeah, he's our kid." Grif hugged Alex to him, glad to find his son in one piece. "He gave us a damn scare there. Nothing like going off looking for your kid and finding him with an ambulance. "

"Well then, I'll leave him in your care." The paramedic packed up his stuff. He moved off and toward the library.

"Alessa's the one that hit me with the vase. This time someone hit me with something and I just happened to be close enough to hit my head on a desk." Alex looked between his parents before looking around at the cops and then up toward the library unable to focus.

"Wait, there was someone else there?" Grif placed a hand on his son's shoulder to try to get him to focus on him. He knew that Alex could have a short attention span, but he'd never seen him unable to focus on anything. "Someone that attacked you? Did you tell the MPs about it?"

"The other person? How about why he was in a library? He takes after you so there's no reason that he should be in a library." Simmons sounded astonished, his hands out to his side.

"Hey, libraries are always quiet and a great place to take a nap." Grif glared at the maroon soldier. He really didn't want to start a fight right now but he couldn't believe that Simmons was so unconcerned with their child. He couldn't help himself though, unable to let even the smallest thing go. "You should be more worried about the guy that attacked our son."

"I am worried about that, but I'm also wondering why he would be in a library. I've never seen him set foot in a library, and his test scores show that." Simmons glared back, unable to keep himself from falling into their usual routine. They should have been able to look past such petty things at a moment like this but he found it impossible to let it go.

"Dad, Dad, can we focus?" Alex looked between the two soldiers. He hated having to play peacemaker for them all the time. They bickered day and night and he was always the only one with a calm head. Sometimes it was teasing and he could let it go but when it was like this he had to step in before it got worse. "We should focus on something like maybe why the MPs are here? Or maybe where Alessa is."

"Wait, Alessa was here with you?" Tex moved over to join the other two. "Where is she?" the Freelancer demanded, giving Alex a look that said that he should answer fast before she got tough and forced him to tell her.

"I don't know. She wandered off and then that guy appeared and knocked me out." Alex leaned a bit away from the woman, visibly frightened by her. "She said she was following some humming or something. There she is." He pointed over toward the library where two MPs were escorting Alessa down the stairs.

Tex ran over to them, her feet unable to carry her fast enough. The two MPs tried to stop her. "Ma'am, you have to stay back. You can't talk to the witness."

"She's not a witness, she's my daughter. If you continue to stand in the way of me and my daughter I will shove your head up his ass and his head up your ass." She glared at them as though any second she would punch her fist through their face. The MPs looked at her, horrified, and put their hands up in surrender as they backed off. Tex moved forward hugging her daughter to her. "Damn it, Alessa, you scared me to death." Alessa clung to her mother for comfort. "What happened here?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but your daughter is a witness to a crime. She needs to come with us," one of the MPs said.

"I didn't see who did it. I only saw the body," Alessa told them for what felt like the hundredth time. "I've told you that over and over."

"You have to have seen something. You and that boy over there say you were the only people in the library, but neither one of you says you saw anyone in there." One of the MPs gave her hopeful look, searching for any kind of a break. He looked tired, as though he'd been there all day already and just wanted to go home. "We need to know who did it."

"I don't know who did it. He was dead when I found him." Alessa spoke slowly as though that would make them listen to her. "I just want to go home."

"You heard her. She didn't see who did it," Tex looked between the MPs daring them to try to say anything. "I'm taking her home before you two scar her more."

"Wait, I have to get my backpack and books," Alessa turned running back into the library. She kicked one MP on the way in who had not wanted to let her back in. He fell to the ground in pain and she ran past. Tex followed her walking past the still kneeling MP who was clutching his leg. She found the teen searching for something.

"What are you looking for?" Tex watched Alessa as she moved from table to table pacing the floor looking over every surface. She knelt to look under each of the tables. She finally stopped and sat on the floor looking dejected.

Tex knelt down, looking over at her daughter and frowning as she saw tears gathering in her eyes. She moved around the table to kneel beside Alessa placing an arm around her shoulder.

"Tell momma what you are looking for and I'll help you find it." She'd never seen Alessa like this and it scared her. She wanted to make it all better, help her find what she was looking for, and take her to the safety of their home where she could recover.

"I'm looking for a journal. It's sort of old with a blue eagle on the front. It was right here before it all happened and I don't know where it is." Alessa's tears started to fall as she felt lost without her only guide and connection to what she was searching for.

The rest of the group walked past the injured MP, though Alex kicked him a second time for some comment about Alessa being a demon child.

"What's going on?" Grif moved over to the pair on the floor. He hadn't seen Alessa cry since Church had died ten years ago and she even didn't remember that any more. "Are you all right?"

"No, I've lost it. I have to find it." Alessa pushed away from them, standing and looking around unable to accept that it was gone. She spotted Alex and stormed over to him.

"Where did you put it?" She grabbed his collar and pulled him closer. There was a slight pause as she saw the bit of blood on his forehead. "And what happened to your head?"

"I don't have it. This guy attacked me and I hit my head. He also took the journal." Alex looked away from her, knowing that she would be mad. "He thought that I had stolen it."

"You let him take it?" Alessa looked at him horrified by his actions. "How could you let someone take it? We needed that!" She pushed him violently away from her.

"I didn't have much choice. The guy was scary as hell and you know I'm not a fighter." Alex put up his hands, afraid that she had only moved him away so she could hit him. "Though he thought I was the Alex from the journal. I think the guy might have been the original owner."

"I don't care if he was the owner! We needed that." Alessa's voice echoed through the library as her hands clenched almost hard enough for the finger nails to break skin and draw blood. She looked over toward their table and walked over to it picking up one of the books. "At least you didn't lose the damn bible."

"Wait, there was another person here? You both told the MPs that there was no one else here." Tex looked between them having been lost as to what ether one of them were talking about. She didn't mind if Alessa was mad at Alex, she usually was, as long as she wasn't crying.

"We'll tell you about it later mom. The thing that I saw wasn't human; at least I don't think so." Alessa closed her eyes and all she could see was the bloody figure, heart still in hand, and the dead body. She rubbed her temples then looked to her mother. "It wasn't really the kind of thing that the MPs would believe in."

"I actually saw two I guess what you would call people. Well, one of them was the person but the other one might be what Alessa saw." Alex's tone was casual, though the way that his head shook slowly back and forward gave the idea that he wasn't as calm as he acted. "Neither of them are something that the MPs would believe in."

"All right, you can tell me about it when we get home." Tex ran a hand through her hair taking a deep breath. She figured that if Silent Hill was involved it wasn't something that normal people would believe in.

Alessa grabbed her bag, stuffing the two books inside. The group headed out to join up with the others, who hadn't been allowed past the police tape, as being friends of people wasn't a good enough reason for the MPs to let them go.

"You guys both all right?" Tucker hugged Alessa quickly and looked between the teens then to their parents. "What the hell is going on here anyway? They won't tell us a damn thing." They turned moving to make their way home.

"I haven't seen this big of a commotion since that time that the pope came to town. Well, it turned out that it wasn't really the pope but a guy pretending to be the pope in order to get girls." Donut rambled on engrossed in his own memories."We should have known it wasn't the pope when he always showed up drunk, didn't have the pope hat, and had sex with that guy and girl on stage. Ah, good times."

"Donut, that's enough of your disturbing stories." Sarge had snapped unable to take any more. "I'd rather hear about the disturbing story that had those MPs and cops throwing up in the bushes."

"I'm not sure if you want to hear it." Alessa looked forward into the fog a haunted look in her eye. "I wish that I could forget what I saw. Oh, by the way Uncle Tucker, James is dead." Her tone suddenly became very casual as she gave her honorary uncle the news.

"Wow, you are just as good as your dad and mom at breaking bad news." Sarcasm was thick on Tucker's words. "How did he die? Wait, how do you know that he's dead?"

"I know because it's his body in the library." Alessa gave him a look that said he should already have made that logical leap. "I think he was killed by his throat being slit, but I doubt the MPs will even notice that. They'll be more interested in his torn-open chest and missing heart." Her tone was causal as though she talked about this all the time. No hint of the fear that she had felt a moment ago.

"Wait, what do you mean torn open chest and missing heart?" Tucker tilted his head slightly toward Alessa a confused look plastered on his face. "Last time I saw him his chest was closed and I think he had a heart."

"That's what I saw. That thing that I saw tore his chest open and tore out his heart." Alessa's gaze became unfocused for a moment, remembering the song that the woman had sung, and the sword that she'd seen the thing had carried. "I think he was the bogeyman. He had a really big sword and this odd pyramid-like helmet."

"Yeah, that's the same thing that I saw that guy working with. I saw the pyramid guy and the guy that took the journal had a knife, sword, gun, and probably other things that I couldn't see. He wasn't the kind of guy I wanted to mess with." Alex moved a bit closer to her smiling a bit, glad to know he hadn't been seeing things.

The two teens stopped looking back at the soldiers that had all frozen in place. "Did you just say that you saw Pyramid Head?" Tucker gave them a serious but scared look hoping that he had heard them wrong.

"Um, if he's a guy that's naked from the chest up with a red pyramid helmet then yeah we saw him. He was the guy that tore out James' heart." Alessa easily described him from her memory. She didn't see why it was such a big deal.

"Yay, you saw Mr. Pointy head. Did he mention me? Did he say that he missed me?" Caboose was nearly jumping for joy. "Oh, I haven't seen him in forever."

"We haven't seen him since he killed Church—hey, one more thing that you and he have in common," Tucker smirked at Caboose hoping to distract himself from his own fear. "You both killed Church, you are both annoying, and I wish that both of you would go away forever."

"Wait, this pyramid guy killed my dad, and Caboose killed my dad?" Alessa looked between them her mouth hanging open unsure of what words to say. "What the hell are you talking about?" she finally managed.

"I'm kind of more focused on the giant monster that's from a horror town and likes to kill things." Grif looked behind them as though he was afraid that the monster was going to appear there. He looked back toward the teens. He was scared and he moved closer to them, looking between them, his head shaking slightly as he spoke. "I mean you have no idea how dangerous this guy is."

"Then tell us. This has to do with Silent Hill, doesn't it?" Alessa once more tried to get information from them. Whatever they had been keeping from her and Alex, it was dangerous. "You have to tell us about it."

Tex sighed, looking away for a moment and then back to Alessa. "Fine, but only because you two have gotten yourselves messed up in this," Tex gave them a look that said they had asked for it, and she wasn't to blame if they didn't like it.

"About ten years ago we were stationed in a box canyon. One day this fog appeared and it consumed everything and we all got split up. Long story short, your father found you there and you were following him around. In the end he found a way to get us out of that place. But he was too injured and Pyramid Head killed him as we were leaving,"

Tex looked away from them, her face haunted by what had happened there. It took her a moment to find her voice again. "Silent Hill is an awful place. It's a town full of monsters, blood, and bad things. Your father gave his life trying to get you away from that place and I just want to keep you from it as well."

Alessa was quiet and Alex just watched her. "All right, I take back absolutely everything bad that I've said about your father." Alex looked away from her, trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh my god, we forgot about Church." Tucker looked to Tex, horrified that they had forgotten about their fighting friend. "Dude, we left him to take care of the ferals. I wonder if he's still alive."

"Wait, I thought that my dad was dead. How could you have left him to take care of something called a feral?" Alessa frowned looking at Alex who simply shrugged.

"Dude, Church never stays dead. He's been killed, shot with tanks, shot by your mother, and stabbed, and he always seems to come back. We don't have good enough luck for him to stay away." Tucker's comment earned him a kick from Alessa and a hit from Tex, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Don't bad-mouth my dad." Alessa stood over him glaring at the teal soldier. She paused for a moment realization hitting her. She looked toward her mother. "So wait a minute, you guys left him alone to take care of whatever a feral is? What is a feral?"

"We think it's some sort of Silent Hill monster, hard to tell though." Simmons shrugged unable to be sure of his answer. "Church had a lead pipe and we needed Tex to protect the rest of us. I'm sure he's fine. Though where he is I have no idea."

"I think he saw us come out of the house, so he's probably at home." Tex looked to her daughter trying to look confident and hide her fear. "We'll start there. If he's not there, then we can go looking for him to see if anyone has seen him."

The group made their way back to the house and right away moved to the kitchen. "I don't see Church. If he's not here then where is he?" Sister moved into the kitchen sitting in a chair and leaning back.

"We've only checked the kitchen. There's more than just one room in the house." Sarge sat down beside her. "I know that the kitchen is the only place that we could find Grif but dirty blues tend to hide in places like your shower so they can take video of you bathing and sell it on the Internet."

"Sarge, I'm telling you, that wasn't the blues. It was someone else since the video covered blue base as well." Grif blushed at the memory of what had been on the video. "Also, someone could find me basically anywhere that you wouldn't look because that way I could sleep and not do work."

"Actually, I think the video he's referring to is the one that Tucker did when he was trying to blackmail us," Simmons looked away from Grif, his face turning red.

"You have no idea how disturbing this conversation is to me." Alex shook his head to try to get the thought out of his head.

"I found Church!" Caboose seemed rather proud of the accomplishment pointing toward the couch in the living room."Though for some reason he's wearing the wrong color."

"What are you talking about, Caboose?" Tex walked into the room to where Caboose stood. She could see the blue leader's feet up on the couch and she had the urge to knock them off and tell him to get up off his lazy ass.

She stopped, though, as she rounded the corner and realized what Caboose meant. Church was lying on the couch, but he was covered in red. Some sort of animal had gotten into the house and had attacked him while he'd probably been resting on the couch. Claws and fangs had torn into him covering him in red blood. The creature had torn apart his arms and legs and torn open his chest breaking through several ribs while leaving the rest of the stained red bones visible. Organs were torn apart and littered over what had once been Church's torso and on the floor beside him. His limbs and throat looked like hamburger meat. Blood stained the couch and the carpet around him and as she looked around she could see blood splatter on the walls.

The scent hit her and for a moment the world swam as blood and other bodily fluids filled her senses. Tex took a step back, unsteady on her feet as she did. She ran for the kitchen sink where she vomited out what was in her stomach. She emptied herself, feeling the tears run down her face as she remained hunched over the cool metal.

"Wow, I'm familiar with that." Alessa watched her mother trying to mask her fear with a light tone. Her mother had never cried before, never in front of her.

She looked over at Caboose who was walking into the kitchen. She walked past him out to the living room. At the sight of her father on the couch she took a step back and fell to her knees trying to figure out what she was seeing. It wasn't even the sight of blood or the scent in the air, but who it was. He looked like something out of her nightmares.

"Hey that's the guy from the library… Well, I think it is. I mean, the guy that I saw wasn't so cut up, or, well he didn't look that normal. The guy I saw was armed and he looked like even if he came up against a bear he could have just shot its head off." Alex looked at the body, studying it before moving over and kneeling down beside Alessa.

"You all right?" Alex put an arm around her shoulder. She didn't really reply, just turning toward him and leaning into his shoulder. He helped her stand and lead her out to the kitchen table. Tex sat down next to her and put her arms around her daughter.

"Has anyone else noticed that this house is still in the other world?" Sister tapped on the metal plate that made up one of the kitchen walls. "Shouldn't we have gone back to normal by now?" Even as she spoke the wall seemed to peel back into place.

"Well, the MPs are probably going to show up eventually to talk to Alessa again so we should move Church's body somewhere. Whatever got him probably wasn't from our world." Tex leaned back in her chair, keeping a hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"Come on, Sarge, let's move him into the attic or something." Tucker led the red leader into the living room. They came back a few seconds later. "Dude, where the hell is Church?" Tucker looked at them, wondering if this was a prank.

"He's in the living room on the couch. It's kind of hard to miss a mutilated body." Alex furrowed his brow, unsure how they could miss it. He shook his head in disbelief. "I thought my dads were messing around when they said you couldn't find your way out of a paper bag but it seems you can't even find a corpse in a living room."

"He's not on the couch you little brat." Tucker glared at Alex, not happy with his smart mouth. "There isn't even any blood. Are you sure that he was there?"

Alex stood up, moving out into the living room, then came back. "They aren't kidding, the body is gone."

"Where did it go?" Grif moved over, hitting Tucker with a spatula. "And that's for calling my kid a brat. I would have hit you sooner but I was procrastinating."

"Maybe Silent Hill took him with it." Sister shrugged not really caring. She seemed more interested in the ceiling. "I mean if we were in the other world when we saw the body, we went back to normal and the body is gone, it must have gone with the other world."

"I think that made sense." Donut pursed his lips trying to find the logic and meaning and wondering how Sister had managed to use logic.

"This is way too much." Alessa stood up and moved toward the stairs. "I'm going to sleep." She started up the steps.

"Wait, I'll come with you." Alex hurried up after her. He fell down the stairs a moment later, landing at the base of the stairs. He stood up shaking the fall off. "All right, that one I totally deserved."

"Come on, young man, we are going home." Simmons stood while Grif grabbed Alex by the shirt collar and pulled him out the front door.

It wasn't long after that Donut, Sister, Caboose, and Sarge went home. Caboose had been out too late and Sister had to take him home. Donut had said something about needing beauty sleep and Sarge left with him. This left Tex and Tucker sitting at the table alone. There was a silence that was uneasy between them.

"Thank you, Tucker." Tex broke the silence not looking at him as she said it. "I mean, you weren't a complete pain in the ass today."

"Fog rolls in, your daughter sees a murder, and you find Church dead on your couch. Even I know when to not be a jack ass." Tucker shrugged, unwilling to admit that he could be nice. "Don't think I'm not going to be back to my obnoxious self."

"I wouldn't expect anything less. Hitting you is way more therapeutic." Tex smiled a bit. She felt glad to be able to get rid of some of the tension.

"I should get going, I mean it's rather dark out and after today I don't think I want it to get much darker." Tucker stood up from the table and moved to the front door.

Tex stood as well and watched him. "Thanks again, Tucker." She watched him smile at her and leave. She moved over to the front door and locked it before heading up stairs.

Tex stopped Alessa's room to check on her. She knocked before she entered and found her daughter curled up in bed.

"Alessa, are you all right?" She moved closer to the teen's bed.

"You guys said that you saw dad and talked to him and he fought the ferals. That means that he couldn't have also been at the library when we Alex thought he'd seen him." Alessa was hopeful and it showed in her eyes. "That means that he wasn't the one that killed James."

"You think the man that attacked Alex is the one that killed James?" Tex took a seat on her daughter's bed.

"I know he was. Alex said he had a knife and that's what had to have slit James's throat." Alessa looked toward the ceiling. "Dad's not a killer is he?" There was a pleading look in her eyes hoping to hear what she wanted.

"Well, he's a killer of monsters. Your father killed a lot of them to protect you, even a giant snake and a rabbit monster." Tex hoped she had given her daughter the answer she needed.

"You know, killing a rabbit doesn't sound as impressive as it must have been." Alessa smiled a bit the idea of her father fighting a little bunny popping into her head. "I mean, you wouldn't brag about killing the Easter bunny."

"Oh, this wasn't a little bunny. It was a giant rotting rabbit monster. It was as big as your father and he killed it with just a lead pipe." Tex smiled a bit at the memory, remembering how proud she had been to see Church fight so hard. "I'm sure that whatever those ferals were they weren't what got him. Silent Hill is a place of lies, Alessa. For all we know that body we saw wasn't real."

Alessa nodded and sat up. "Do you think dad is really dead? I mean, you saw him and Alex thinks he saw another one of him. Were they both fake as well? I mean if the body we saw was fake then maybe the one you saw get killed was fake."

Tex frowned and looked away from Alessa. "The man that I saw die those years ago really was your father, of that I am sure. I do not know whether the man that Alex saw was your father or not but the man that we met today, something was different about him. He wasn't the same as the man that I saw die. Maybe time has changed him or something, I don't know." Tex closed her eyes tightly trying to push away the memories. She took a deep breath and turned to look at Alessa."Just put it out of your mind for now love. We'll deal with it in the morning. Try to get a little sleep."

"That's easy for you to say. You didn't see a guy's chest get ripped open and his heart torn out," Alessa said, laying back down and holding Harry close to her. Tex stayed for a moment before she stood up leaving her daughter to try to get some sleep.

Tex moved down the stairs and stood before the couch. She couldn't allow herself to believe that what she had seen was real. She wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes willing the image to leave her memory.

"Why is this happening?" She didn't expect an answer but she was close to praying for one. A part of her wished to turn around and find Church standing there smiling at her. She turned around and frowned as she found what she expected, nothing. She looked back to the couch and ran a hand over the fabric.

She shook her head, clearing her mind before she moved back up the stairs to her own room. She changed into her sleepwear and lay down in bed.

She spent at least ten minutes just staring at the picture on her nightstand. "You're lucky you're dead." She slowly drifted off to sleep.

~End chapter 7~


	8. Chapter 8

Silent Gulch 2 Retribution Chapter 8

Alessa rolled over, opening her eyes and looking out the window. She realized that she couldn't see much of anything at all. The thick fog from the other day had grown thicker.

She rolled back over and jumped a bit as she saw a boy standing next to her bed. The child looked to be about nine years old, wearing a faded red shirt and gray shorts. She looked at him for a moment but he didn't say anything.

"Um…hello." She stared at him but the boy didn't speak. "Who are you?"

"I'm Joshua." He tilted his head to one side. "Who are you?" Then he hugged a stuffed dragon to him. She hadn't even noticed he was holding it.

"Hey, that's my dragon." Alessa looked around and it was confirmed—Harry was gone. "Give him back right now."

"No, he's mine." Joshua took a step back. He clutched the dragon tighter to him. "You can't have him."

"He's not yours, he's mine. My mom gave him to me." Alessa made a grab for the dragon, but Joshua moved back more. "I got him for my birthday. His name is Harry."

"He's my Harry." Joshua turned and ran out of the door, shutting it behind him.

Alessa got up, running after him, but when she opened the door she found nothing. She ran to the stairs and didn't see anyone there either. She ran down the stairs two at a time and moved through the house, finding no one, not even her mother.

"Mom, where are you? There's a creepy kid in the house." She stopped, listening to the silence around her. There was no sound of footsteps, no reply from her mother. Her mother should have replied or appeared by now. She looked out in the driveway and found that the car was still there.

She wandered into the kitchen, deciding that if the kid had stayed upstairs to hide, then she would stake him out. She sat down at the kitchen table so that she could watch the door.

* * *

Grif rolled over and pulled the blankets over him tighter.

"Hey, stop taking all the covers." Simmons fought to pull the covers back over him. Instead he managed to just force himself to fall off the bed. "Fine, we need to get up any way."

Simmons moved over to their dresser and opening it up. He only found a maroon dress shirt and pair of dress pants.

"Oh, haha, Dex. You know it's not really that funny to joke about that." He grabbed them and quickly got dressed.

Grif finally rolled over and sat up. "What are you talking about?" He stood up and joined Simmons at the dresser. He didn't even seem to notice that his drawer contained only a baggy orange shirt and sweatpants, instead just grabbing them and getting dressed.

"Something's going on." Simmons frowned, causing Grif to look over at him.

The orange soldier then looked at his own clothing and sighed. "What's happening?"

"I hate that damn town." Grif walked out of the bedroom and made his way down the hallway. He knocked on Alex's door and called in. "Time to get up. You have school today."

Grif didn't hear a reply, so he opened the door, fully intent on waking his son… Well, trying… Well, giving up without trying and getting Simmons to do it. He found no one in the room though. The bed was perfectly made and there was no sign of Alex. "Dick, shit hit the fan."

Simmons joined Grif in the doorway and saw the empty room. "I have never seen Alex make his bed." He looked back at his clothing and then at Grif. "What do we do?"

"We find Tex. First though we get something to defend ourselves from anything that attacks us. We can't help Alex if we get killed." Grif led Simmons off to find a weapon.

* * *

The red leader and Donut only lived in the same house because Donut didn't like living alone, and Sarge was rather old and needed someone to keep tabs on him. This arrangement had led to more than one rude awakening for Sarge.

Sarge woke up and noticed that there was someone else in his bed. He kicked the person out, causing Donut to fall to the ground.

"Donut, what did I tell you about that? No one sleeps in my bed with me."

"Sorry, Sarge, but I was afraid. After what happened yesterday I was really scared and I couldn't get to sleep. I swear I kept to one side of the bed." Donut stood up, rubbing his butt where he'd hit the floor.

"That's no excuse, soldier. Didn't I lock my door before I went to sleep?" Sarge frowned.

"No, you locked the front door, and the case that you keep your ceramic figurines in." Donut put his hands on his hips. "You forgot to lock your door."

Sarge sighed and looked over at Donut. "What are you wearing?" He glared at the pink solider, who was still sitting on the floor.

"Oh, they are my satin pajamas." Donut posed with his hip slightly to the side to show them off. "I'm going to go get dressed." He happily turned and skipped off.

Sarge shook his head and moved over to his closet, frowning as he found that only a red undershirt and camouflage pants hung there. "Damn it, Donut, I told you not to redo my wardrobe." He grabbed one of each and got dressed.

"It's awful, Sarge. Someone stole all my clothing and replaced them with basically no choices of fashion. This is all I have." Donut motioned dramatically to the pink shirt and tight pants that he wore.

"Something's very wrong here, Donut. Get Simmons on the horn. We need to make a trip to the K-mart." Sarge pointed off into the distance at nothing.

"Can't we go to like a better store? Maybe we could go to someplace like Kohl's." Donut suck out his lower lip, pouting. "They have a better selection."

"Donut, don't argue with me. Just get Simmons on the phone and get your shoes on. We need to go shopping for new clothing." Sarge took a threatening step toward the younger man.

Donut saluted and moved off. A moment later his voice carried through the house from the office room. "Sarge, the phone lines are down. I'm not getting anything."

"All right then, Donut. We'll have to walk to Simmons's house and get him to drive us to K-mart." Sarge lead Donut out the front door.

* * *

Sister got up, nearly falling out of bed, and holding her head. "Damn, how much did I drink last night?"

She moved over to her dresser and quickly grabbed a yellow halter top and mini skirt out of the drawer and got dressed. She looked back at her bed and was surprised to find Caboose curled up in a ball in his Superman pajamas. "Caboose, what are you doing in here?"

"I was scared last night and I didn't want to sleep alone. You said that I could stay here last night." Caboose frowned at her, trying to give her sad eyes.

"Well, go get dressed and I'll make us breakfast." Sister sort of stumbled out of her bedroom and down the stairs to the kitchen.

Caboose got up, going to his own room. He noticed that all his normal clothing had been replaced with a blue t-shirt and jeans but he forgot about it right away and got dressed. He skipped down stairs and found that Sister had poured them two shots of tequila. "What is that?"

"That's breakfast." Sister grabbed her shot and downed it. She then pushed the other one toward Caboose. "It's good."

"Um, I don't think that I should drink that." Caboose eyed the shot. "I would like toast for breakfast."

"Well, then make it yourself." Sister took the other shot and downed it. "You know Donut's number. He makes food for you, right?"

"I do." Caboose moved over to the phone and pushed the numbers. After a while he looked back at Sister. "It isn't ringing. It's supposed to ring."

Sister took the phone, then hung it back up. "Phone lines must be out. You'll have to walk over to Donut's house."

"I don't want to walk there on my own. I'll get lost, then hurt." Caboose pouted like a helpless puppy.

Sister sighed and took Caboose's hand to lead him. "All right, I'll walk you there." She did want to raid Donut's closet again.

* * *

Alessa sat at the table for an hour, until the front door opened and Alex walked in. Alessa furrowed her brow. "What are you doing here?"

"Have you seen my dads? They weren't at home this morning." Alex walked into the kitchen. "What are you doing?"

"No, I haven't seen them. My mom wasn't home this morning either." Alessa leaned forward, arms resting on the table. "Who was here was a bratty little kid that stole Harry. I'm waiting to see if he tries to make a run out the front door."

"So, wait, you woke up this morning and your mother wasn't home, but a kid had broken into your house. You aren't the least bit concerned?" Alex made his way over to the table.

"I'm a bit concerned with the fact that my mother's gone, but I'm more pissed that that brat stole my dragon." Alessa shrugged, but didn't take her eyes off the front door. "So both our parents are gone?"

"Looks that way to me. So what are we going to do?" Alex moved around the table and sat down beside her. "Coming to see if they were here was kind of my only idea."

"Well, we have to find our parents. I'm not exactly sure how we're going to do that, though. We still have to go to school. Maybe they both just left early. Though I'm not sure about that creepy kid that was here." Alessa finally looked away from the door to glare at Alex. She scooted her chair away from him, feeling he was too close.

"What did the kid look like?" Alex turned in his chair, scooting his seat a bit closer to her, knowing it annoyed her. "Oh, and do you have anything to eat? Dad usually makes me breakfast every morning, but with him not there I'm starved."

"There's cereal in the pantry and you know where the bowls and milk are." Alessa leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. "The kid was like probably nine or so. He had like black hair and he looked really creepy."

"Did he have a red shirt and gray shorts?" Alex stood and moved over to grab a bowl. He then walked over to the pantry and opened it. "Um, where's all your food?"

"Yeah, he did, how did you know?" Alessa stood up and joined him at the pantry. "I don't know, it was fully stocked yesterday." She stared at the empty shelves.

"Great, so I don't have anything to eat." Alex put the bowl away. "Now what do we do? Parents gone, food gone, creepy kids breaking into houses—how could this get worse?"

"Well, we have to go to school. We can take care of all the other problems later." Alessa grabbed her backpack from where she'd thrown it the night before. "Did you bring your books…just realized how stupid that was."

"Like I ever do my homework or bring my books." Alex said chuckled slightly, giving her one of his charming grins. "That would mean I'd have to learn." He smiled even wider as Alessa shook her head and led him outside. He waited as she locked the door behind them and they moved off down the street. "So what do you think is going on?"

"I have no idea. I don't even know how you knew what that kid was wearing." Alessa frowned. "How did you know that anyway?"

"It was from yesterday. When that guy was walking away for a moment instead I saw that kid and then he ran away. I have no idea what it means." Alex scratched his head, closing his eyes.

"Great, that doesn't help us know who he is." Alessa frowned as she shook her head. "Hey, shouldn't we have made it to the guard post by now? I don't even see it up ahead."

"I don't remember the road being this crappy, nor do I remember that house." Alex looked up at the old run-down Victorian-style house. "Though it does look familiar."

"There shouldn't be a house there. That's where the supermarket is supposed to be." Alessa hesitated for a moment. "I don't remember any of these houses being here." There was what sounded like a growl and then a bark somewhere down the street. "I don't like the sound of that."

"I don't either." Alex stopped in his tracks. His attention was caught by a one house in particular that looked very familiar to him.

"Alex, what are those?" Alessa looked behind them, where three dogs were moving down the street in their direction. With each step, the ferals left behind bloody paw prints their lidless eyes trained on the two teens. Their exposed muscles flexed as they moved closer and closer.

"I don't know, but I don't really want to get to know them better." Alex turned to look at the ferals. "Come on." He grabbed Alessa's hand and pulled her toward the house that had gained his attention.

* * *

Tucker rolled out of bed and fell onto the floor. He made his way over to his closet and opened it, pausing as he found that his wardrobe had been replaced with a cyan shirt that had the words "Bow Chika Bow Wow" on it and jeans.

"Dude, who stole all my stuff?" He shrugged and quickly got dressed.

He moved out of the bedroom and made his way down to the kitchen. He had been planning to make himself some food, but stopped as he spotted the small alien sitting at his table.

"Junior, what are you doing here?" He took a cautious step back. The last time he had seen his son, he had been mutated and was trying to kill him.

"Blarg." Junior stood up and ran over to Tucker, hugging his legs. He snuggled up to his father and Tucker looked at him confused.

"Great, my alien son is home." Tucker relaxed his shoulders ad he looked down at the alien. "I'm still a bit mad at you for pushing me down a hole." He put his hands on his hips but after a moment let them fall to this side once more. "Oh, I can't stay mad at you."

He knelt down and hugged the alien. "Come on, we should go find Tex." He quickly wrapped his son up in a blanket and carried him out the door to make his way to Tex's house.

* * *

Tex stood up, stretching, as she looked out the window at the fog. She frowned, feeling uneasy at the sight of it. She stood up, quickly getting dressed, a bit disturbed by the fact that all her clothing had been replaced with a set of black tank top and black leather pants. She sighed quickly making her way to Alessa's room, and knocked.

"Honey, time to get up." She waited a moment before she opened the door. She found the room empty with the bed perfectly made. She looked around and couldn't find any sign that her daughter had been there.

She ran down the stairs and looked through the house. "Alessa? Where are you?" There was no sign that Alessa had been anywhere.

Tex picked up the phone and cursed as she found that the line was dead. She retrieved her gun and paced through the kitchen. She had to figure out where Alessa was but she had no idea where to start.

Tex made her way back up to the teenager's room, hoping to find some sort of clue. She looked through the room but couldn't find anything. She sat down on the bed and hung her head.

* * *

Alex forced the front door open and pulled them both inside. The ferals chased them to the point of the front gate, then stopped. The two stood in the door way, looking out at the ferals as they paced before the gate.

Alex and Alessa looked at each other and frowned in confusion. They were glad, though, for the safe haven.

Alex turned to look at the house around them. "Why won't they come in here?"

"I don't know, just be glad that they aren't attacking us anymore. Let's see if we can find any weapons to use." Alessa suddenly stopped. "No, there are no weapons in the house."

"How do you know?" Alex looked into the rooms for anything they could use to defend themselves. "Hey, isn't this the picture that you have on your desk at home?" Alex held up a picture from Alessa's tenth birthday party, identical to the one she'd been staring at a few days ago. "I have the same one on my night stand. Good thing we got it before you nearly broke my nose. Don't think it would have been as happy if my nose was bleeding."

Alessa moved into the room with him, taking the picture from him. "Yeah, it is. How did someone get this?" She looked around at the other pictures. "Hey, this one looks like you, but like older. And you're with that creepy kid." Alessa showed him photo of a man and a boy, both in suits.

Alex took the photo and looked at it. He had to admit that it looked like him. "I have no idea what is going on." Alex looked around, examining the house. "This must be Alex Shepherd's house."

"You do realize that your name is Alex Shepherd and that is definitely a picture of you. Now do you believe that the journal was talking about you?" Alessa put her hands on her hips and frowned at him. "That means that this is his house, that we can find him."

Alessa took off through the house to look for the person. She even went through the upstairs with Alex following behind her. Alex finally found her in one of the rooms staring into the empty room, defeated. "He's not here."

"Maybe he's just out." Alex sighed as he moved over to her side. "So what do we do from here? Those dogs are still outside." He moved over to the window to look down. The ferals were still gathered out front, sniffing around at the gate.

"Well, I don't think they are going to go anywhere any time soon. Other than that I have no idea. I guess we should stay here until we can come up with an actual plan." Alessa moved into the room, running a hand over the dusty desk. Alex nodded and the two sat down on the bed, staring at the wall across from them.

* * *

A figure appeared in the doorway, eyes shifting over the room as he ran a hand through his hair to try to get it to lay down. The man turned, looking into the room, and spotted Tex. He then moved toward her, causing her to look up at him. He was middle-aged, with brown hair.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for my daughter, Cheryl. She's seven with black hair. Please, she went missing."

Tex sat, staring at him for a moment. "Join the club, my daughter's gone as well. She's seventeen with red hair." Tex stood up. "Who are you and how did you get in my home any way?"

"I'm Harry, Harry Mason. I haven't seen any seventeen-year-old girls, though." Harry ran a hand through his short hair. "I don't really know how I got here. I was attacked by some monsters and I got knocked out and I woke up here."

Tex took a deep breath. "Well, maybe if I help you a bit then I can find my daughter. Where do you think yours is?"

"I don't know. What kind of places are there around here? I don't even know where we are. Are we still at Silent Hill?" Harry frowned as he looked around Alessa's room.

"If we're at Silent Hill I'm going to kill someone. We should be on a military base." Tex punched one of her fists into the palm of her other hand. "Were you in Silent Hill?"

"You have something against Silent Hill?" Harry raised an eyebrow in Tex's direction. "I suppose I wouldn't blame you. All the monsters, the people, and I suppose it seems to have something for stealing daughters."

"Silent Hill is where my daughter came from. I don't hate it exactly, I just don't want to go back." Tex glanced back at the bedside table with the picture of her and her daughter on it. "I want to keep her away from it but it seems less and less like that's possible. I didn't even want to go there in the first place. How did you end up there any way?"

"I went there with my daughter. She was having these dreams and they were getting worse and worse. They were connected to Silent Hill, so we wanted to find the source of the dreams." Harry sighed, looking down toward the ground.

"You mean you went there of your own free will? What the hell is wrong with you?" Tex's eyes widened in surprise. "Alessa has dreams about Silent Hill and her father and all that, but I'm not about to take her there. That would only end badly."

"Alessa, your daughter's name is Alessa? Alessa what?" Harry asked, his hand wandering to the gun in his waist band nervously. "That name seems familiar to me."

"Her name is Alessa Church. You've heard of my daughter before?" Tex took a step back. "Then do you know where she might be?"

"They talked about her, at Silent Hill, though they called her by a different last name. I don't know where she is now." Harry frowned regretfully. "That odd woman in the church might know something about it, though."

"There is a local church. We can start looking for them there." Tex led Harry out of the house.

* * *

Church swung the pipe, knocking the feral away, and it gave out one last heart wrenching whimper before it stopped moving.

"Damn things don't know when to quit." He paused, listening carefully for any sounds that would give away the approach of monsters. "Sometimes I think there are more here than in Silent Hill."

He began wandering the streets of Shepherd's Glen. Usually he would just wait around for the sirens but today, today he didn't want to. After what had happened the other day he didn't want to stay in one place.

Then there was the dream he'd had when he'd come home. He was used to that kind of thing happening but yesterday was different. The whole gang had been there, and they were never all there. It seemed to hate him but It never put Sarge or Donut into Its games.

He turned as he heard someone approach and stopped when he saw that it was just Joshua. "Hey there, kid." He raised a hand lightly in greeting.

"Hey, big brother." Joshua waved back energetically. Church had stopped correcting him some time ago. The kid didn't like to listen to anyone so he always just kept calling him his brother anyway. "Did you see my new stuffed animal?" He held up Harry for him to see.

Church looked at the stuffed dragon, and then reached into his pocket to pull out a photo. He'd removed it from the Shepherd house only because he feared that it would be removed and replaced. He didn't mind the new pictures that would replace it but he wanted to remember that picture. It was a photo from Alessa's eighth birthday that Tucker had taken. It showed Tex hugging her daughter to her as she and Alessa faced the camera. His eyes moved back to the dragon in Joshua's hands and the child clung to the stuffed animal a bit tighter.

He put the photo away and turned his attention back to Joshua. "Give me the dragon, Joshua."

Joshua took a step back. "No, it's my dragon. You can't have it." Joshua crushed the dragon to his chest.

"It's not yours. It belongs to my daughter." Church made a grab for it, but Joshua turned and ran off.

"Come back here, you little brat." Church ran after the young boy. "Damn, weren't you taught not to steal?"

Church skidded to a halt as something struck out and long claws cut his leg. Church fell, rolling to face what had attacked him. The lurker started to crawl closer to Church, getting ready to strike again.

"Damn it, Joshua, I'll get that dragon. No one steals from my daughter." He turned his full attention back to the lurker, dodging the monster's next attack.

"Oh, you are going down." He grabbed his pipe. He dodged a couple more attacks before he was in the right position. He swung at the lurker and it fell back a little. Church quickly followed up the hit with two more strikes, causing the lurker to collapse to the ground.

Church raised the pipe over his head and then swung down, slamming it into the lurker's head and crushed it. It was satisfying to have the skull break under the force.

He quickly put the pipe away, examining the set of claw marks on his leg. They weren't too deep, and he easily wrapped it up with some of the torn up sheets that he carried with him. He then stood and took off down the road after Joshua.

~end chapter 8~


	9. Chapter 9

Silent Gulch retribution chapter 9

Alex lay watching Alessa search through the bedroom. "You really need to calm down." He rolled over onto his side. "He's not here, there's nothing here." She glared at him and he shrugged. "You need to relax, like I am."

"You're sleeping in the bed of someone you don't know. How can you be relaxed?" Alessa turned around and crossed her arms. "What if that's where he sleeps?"

"This is my home right?" Alex smiled at her. "Those are my pictures in those frames, so this is my house. I can sleep wherever I want to." His smile became a smirk, the kind she'd seen on him plenty of times before. "Maybe you'd relax if you joined me."

"We're stuck in a creepy house, with evil-skinned dogs outside, and we have no ideas where our parents are, and you are trying to hit on me?" Alessa closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.

"According to Uncle Tucker, any time is the right time to make a move." Alex flashed her a rather goofy grin.

"You'd be creepy if you weren't just a little bit cute." Alessa sat down on the floor, leaning back against the wall. "I just wish that we could find that guy."

Alex sighed, getting up from the bed. He moved over to sit down next to her. "I don't see why you want to find that guy so badly. I don't think that finding him would be a good thing."

"I want to find him because he's the only link to Silent Hill that I have." Alessa stared down at her knees as she spoke. "I think he knows. Knows about me and about my past."

"Did you say Silent Hill?" a young child's voice echoed through the silence.

* * *

"This is so stupid, something is going to run out and kill us." Grif followed close behind Simmons, nearly walking on the other man's heels.

"Weren't you the one that chose this plan? Why are you the one following me?" Simmons glared at him over his shoulder.

"Because I remembered there were bat monsters." Grif held tight to the knife in one of his hands. "I need you to protect me from the bat monsters."

"We haven't seen any bat monsters." Simmons spread his arms wide in exasperation ten and let them fall back to his sides." I don't think we are going to see any, but if we do I'll protect you."

"How can you be so sure that we won't see any? How do you know that we won't see any giant snake monsters?" Grif moved a bit faster so that he was now walking beside Simmons.

"Stop that, Dex, you're just being mean. You know that I don't like snakes." Simmons' eyes searched the area twice as hard for movement.

"See, now I don't seem so irrationally fearful." Grif smiled triumphantly. "Can we just stay focused on our son; you know he's in danger."

"We don't know if he's in danger. We only know that we are in danger and that our son is missing."

"What makes you think that he's not in danger? If we're in Silent Hill what makes you think that he's not? What is it that makes so calm at a moment like this?" Grif clenched his fists. "There are monsters running around out here and you don't think that our son is in danger." He stopped and glared at his partner.

Simmons stopped as well. "What makes you so sure that he's here, or that the monsters will even care about him? You're jumping to conclusions and saying he's in danger. For all we know he got up early and went over to Alessa's house and he's safe and sound with Tex and Alessa and you are freaking out over nothing."

"Well, excuse me for trying to be a good parent and worry about our son and if something is trying to kill him. I thought you cared about him too." Grif turned and stormed off toward Tex's house.

"Oh, come on, Dex, you know that I care about him." Simmons followed after Grif. "You know that I'm worried about him I just think that we should be worried about the present, worried about me…and you."

Grif huffed at the maroon soldier's words. "Why don't you grow a pair, you fairy?" He didn't stop but the sentence made Simmons freeze. "I hate you right now for making me the one that has to be responsible."

"I'm not making you be anything. Don't try to blame me because you don't know how to be logical and actually take the time to think things through." Simmons followed Grif, speeding up enough to reach him. He grabbed Grif's wrist, making him look back but they kept walking.

"What are you doing? You're sort of starting to freak me out." Grif turned his attention back to where he was walking. "You're usually not this open."

"I'm not holding your hand because of that. I'm kind of afraid we'll get lost in the fog and lose each other and then a snake monster will attack me." Simmons frowned and looked away.

"Sure, that's why you're holding my hand." Grif's tone made it obvious that he didn't believe him. The orange soldier stopped, though, and Simmons nearly ran into him. "Do you see what I see?"

Simmons looked over his shoulder and saw a figure slowly staggering toward them. The charred body moved closer and closer and the glowing lungs hidden under the burnt ribcage. "If you see a monster walking toward us, then yes." Simmons moved to cower behind Grif.

"Well, at least it's not a bat monster." Grif frowned as the creature moved closer to them. "Any ideas as to how to kill it? I know we have knives, but I really don't want to get close to it." Simmons only shrugged and Grif sighed. "We are so going to die. Maybe I _should_ be more worried about us."

* * *

Tex and Harry didn't have any trouble getting to the church. It was right down the street from her home, which always annoyed her. The people of the community tended to flock toward religion and convert others in the community. They were all sick in the head and easily swayed and caught up in the ideals of whatever was being preached. Over the years she'd learned understand more and more why Church hated all religions.

"What do you think that we'll find here?" Tex looked up at the cross on the roof of the church which was barely visible through the fog. She frowned as she noticed the set of sirens at the base of the cross. She didn't recall ever seeing those before.

"I don't know. Hopefully our daughters, maybe just clues as to where they are." Harry didn't look at her but shrugged. "I never know what to expect when it comes to Silent Hill."

"I've learned to expect the worst. I'm going to just prepare to find absolutely nothing here." Tex opened the main door to the church. She was surprised, though, to find it filled with people.

A woman stood up at the main altar of the church. "More of the flock who have come to obtain sanctuary from the darkness that surrounds us."

Tex didn't like the feel of it. The woman wore rather old-fashioned clothing and looked a bit like a mess. Her hair was pulled back in a bun but there were strands sticking out here and there. "Come, join us as we pray for god to protect us."

Tex frowned and raised her hands. "No, thanks, we're not really here for the religious thing. We're missing our children, does anyone know where they are? I know that most of you know my daughter, you've talked to her, seen her around. She's seventeen with red hair. He's also missing his seven year old daughter, black hair."

The people were silent and the woman slowly descended the steps. "We have children here, but none are as you describe yours. Perhaps you should pray with us that god brings your children back to you safely. For now pray is all that we can do. Outside of these walls there is no safety, but in here we are in god's protection; we are safe from the evil that is filling our world."

Tex raised her eyebrows. "Wow, you must be a special brand of crazy. I'm just looking for my daughter. Praying isn't going to help with that. I'm going to go do something that will actually do some good. Like maybe go find my child by actually looking for her."

"If you go out there now then god will not protect you." The woman spread her arms with her palm facing upward. "The evil that has descended will tear you apart and there will be no one that can save you."

"I don't need someone to protect me. I can protect myself and no matter what is going on, my daughter is out there. No amount of evil that's descended here will keep me from finding her." Tex clenched her fists. "I will find Alessa, and I will save her."

"Did you say Alessa?" The woman's eyes widened. "Then you are one of them that took the mother away. You are family to the mother of god."

* * *

"I really do hate the fog. It's bad for my complexion; I always look bad when it's dark out." Donut pouted.

"Donut, stay focused. We need to make it to Simmons's house. We need to get s new wardrobe before the blues see us in these awful clothes." Sarge didn't even look over at the other soldier.

"Oh, I wouldn't want that. They'd think that we have no style and then we'd lose the war." Donut put his hands on his cheeks in shock. Sarge looked at him for a moment, trying to decide if he was joking or not. "I wish I'd been able to do something with my hair, or put on some concealer."

"Why the hell would you need to do anything with your hair? You don't mean using that damn Axe stuff again. That stuff stinks." Sarge put his hand over his nose, remembering the smell. "You pile that stuff on."

"I'm trying to get some hair action Sarge. Axe is the only way to get hair action." Donut put his arms out to his sides. "How else would I get any action?"

"You aren't going to be getting any sort of action as long as you are living in my house unless you are getting combat action." Sarge glared at the younger man.

"Combat action, oh that sounds fun, I want some of that." Donut perked up a bit and smiled. "Besides I could always go to the other person's house."

Sarge just stared at him for a moment. "Donut, combat action means shooting your gun and killing people."

"Oh, that would give me such a rush. It would be even better then hair action. Who are my choices to get combat action with?" Donut rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"Your only choice is to kill a blue; but we aren't allowed weapons, so you'll have to give your enemy the proper strangling." Sarge raised his hands to chest height and clenched his fists as though strangling an invisible throat.

"So then I have to kill one of the blues. I don't really like Tucker and I really, really don't like Sister so I guess I'll have to do it with Caboose." Donut put one of his hands on his chest tapping a finger against his cheek as he thought.

"That came out sounding so wrong." Sarge turned and continued on his way. "Donut, you need to learn a thing or two. You are supposed to kill the people you hate, not the people that you like."

"Wait, I'm killing Caboose? I don't want to do that. Well, then I totally choose to kill Sister instead. She pulls off short-shorts so much better than me." Donut crossed his arms and pouted.

"I told you never to wear those things again." Sarge glared at the other soldier. "I do not want to be woken up on my birthday next year by Officer Hot pants and his plate of eggs and sausage."

"Oh, but then how else am I going to give you the best wake-up ever on your birthdays?" Donut frowned as his shoulders fell slightly.

"You can wake me up by coming into my room wearing non-designer clothing, not wearing makeup, and having sex with a woman." Sarge kicked at a rock in the street.

"That's an odd request. I don't know if I can do that. I'm really the kind of guy that needs to be wearing designer clothing." Donut tilted his head to one side.

Sarge was silent for a moment and shook his head. "How about on my birthday you just leave me alone. Maybe go stay the night with Sister and Caboose."

"Oh, that would be so much fun. We could have a sleep over; we could do our hair, get manicures, and stay up really late sharing secrets." Donut clapped his hands together.

"Donut, I don't want to hear about what you and Caboose do in your own time." Sarge put one hand on his forehead. "Just stay focused, new wardrobe."

"Oh, yeah, you so have to let me choose your clothing. You haven't been wearing clothes that are the proper season for you." Donut lay his hands on his chest over his sternum.

"Donut, clothes are made of cloth and I'm a person, neither part of that is a season." Sarge raised one eyebrow.

"No, Sarge, it refers to the shades of the clothes. Your skin and build and hair are so totally winter but you keep wearing clothing meant for an autumn." Donut smiled and giggled.

"Donut, that is by far the biggest pile of prairie pebbles that I've ever heard in my life." Sarge shook his head. "You need to get your head on straight or the MPs will put you in a mental home."

"Oh, I don't think they are that bad. I mean they let that guy out for an evening walk." Donut pointed over Sarge's shoulder.

There was a figure with no arms walking toward them. It almost looked as though it was wearing a strait jacket from the jerking movements as it moved toward them.

"That's not a mental patient; well, maybe not. I'm pretty sure that's a monster come to kill us in some awful way." Sarge wished that he had some way to defend himself.

"What are we going to do Sarge?" Donut frowned, worried. He grabbed the red leader's arm for comfort as he cowered behind Sarge.

"We're going to walk away, Donut. That thing's not very fast." Sarge continued to walk at a steady but unrushed pace. The monster staggered after them.

* * *

Alessa gaped at the blond girl who had appeared in the doorway. "Who are you? Are you a Shepherd?" she asked, slowly standing up.

"No, I'm Laura." The little girl put her hands behind her back and swayed a little. "I remember you, I don't like you. You're that girl that called me a little brat."

"I don't know what you are talking about. I've never met you before in my life." Alessa frowned. "Do you know the man that's staying here?"

"You do too know. Don't lie to me. I have seen the man that is staying here, but I'm not going to tell you about him because you're mean." Laura stomped her foot on the ground.

Alex moved forward, grabbing the little girl's arm. "Well, if you aren't going to be any help then leave my house."

"You're mean too. Joshua was right. You're an awful big brother." Laura struggled, but Alex didn't let go.

"I don't have a sibling, so I'm a fine big brother." Alex held on tight as she tried to dig her nails into his hand. "Now tell me what I want to know, tell me about the man that is staying here."

"You should know all about him. You're the one that's letting him stay here." Laura set her foot against his leg, trying to push herself farther away. "And you are a bad brother, or have you already forgotten about Joshua?"

"I don't know anyone named Joshua." Alex grabbed her with a second hand to keep her from getting away. "I want you to answer whatever questions Alessa asks you."

"If you don't know him then you're the worst big brother in history." Laura glared up at him. "Who the hell is Alessa?"

"I'm Alessa." She walked up to stand beside Alex. "I want you to tell me what you know about the man that's staying here. What's his name? Why is he here? What's he like?"

"I didn't know you were going by the name Alessa now. I always thought you were Cheryl." Laura stopped fighting. "I don't know his name or why he's here. I don't like him much; he called me a brat too."

"Well, then it seems it's unanimous, you're a brat." Alex glared at her and Laura kicked him in the leg, causing him to let her go. Laura took off, running away. Alessa ran after her and Alex was shortly behind them. Laura sped down the stairs. The teens followed, but when they reached the bottom floor she was gone.

"Why do kids keep doing that today?" Alessa slammed her fist against a nearby wall. She opened the front door to look for the girl, but stopped short. "Where did the dogs go?"

* * *

Sister led Caboose down the street, still holding his hand as they walked. "You know, I like you. Church says that there are no nice ladies, but you are a nice lady."

"Wow, Caboose, that's really nice of you to say. I'd thank you properly, but there aren't any rest stop bathrooms, elevators, dumpsters, or VIP sections of a club to do it at, so maybe later," Sister smiled. Caboose tilted his head to the side, rather confused. "So, what are you going to have Donut make for you?"

"I think I'm going to have him make pancakes. He's really good at making those. He sometimes makes them for me when I have to stay over at his house because it got too dark outside and I'm afraid to walk home in the dark." Caboose frowned as he remembered how afraid he had been. "Sarge hates those nights. He tells Donut that he should be having a woman stay over, not me."

"Well, that's because Sarge is an idiot. Maybe next time I can join you two and then Sarge will shut up. I can handle two guys at a time, or just watch." Sister put her hands behind her back and smiled.

"Watch what? We like to sit around while we watch _Earth Colony's Next Top Model_ while he brushes my hair. There was that one time that he put those bleached streaks in my hair, that didn't look too good so we had to come back the next day so that he could try to fix it. That's why I had bleached hair for that while. That stuff smelled bad." Caboose reached up and scratched at his hair.

"Yeah, bleach usually does. Though it tastes better then it smells." Sister tilted her head to one side and frowned a bit. "It's really great if you have some 150 proof alcohol and you want to make it stronger. That stuff had Sarah praying to the porcelain god all night long and the next three days."

"That does not sound nice. I'm glad then that I did not drink it." Caboose perked up again. "I like being able to stay over at Donut's when you stay over at Tucker's. I don't know why you'd want to stay around him, though."

"Tucker's not that bad. He's actually really nice to me." Sister looked over to the side and smiled softly. "He acts like a player, but he's really not that good when it comes to a woman that returns the advances. You should have seen him that one night. He was so nervous."

"Why would he be nervous around you? I'm never nervous around you." Caboose furrowed his brows. "There's no reason for people to be nervous around you."

"Oh, he was very nervous. Took him a while to calm down enough to get down to business. I have to admit it was a pretty good night, not my best but he's getting better." Sister chuckled to herself.

"Getting better? Do you two play some sort of game? Can I play next time with you?" Caboose's face lit up like a child who had just learned something new.

"Yeah, we play a sort of game, though I don't think that Tucker would want you to join. He likes to play it with only two people, no matter what he says." Sister smirked.

"Well, then maybe I can find someone to play with me. Maybe Donut will play the game with me." Caboose clapped his hands happily.

"Well, Donut would be willing, but I don't know if you'd like playing it with another guy." Sister frowned. He obviously had no idea what they were talking about. "I thought you'd want to play with a woman."

"Does if my teammate is a guy or girl matter?" Caboose cocked his head to one side. "It is like easier if I play it with a girl or a guy?"

"Well, some would argue either way. Personally, it's easier for me to play with a guy, but I'm willing to play with a girl." Sister waved her hands about as she spoke. "It's all about personal preference."

"Well, then I'll see if Donut will play with me and if I don't like playing with him then I'll find a lady to play with then to see if I like that more." Caboose smiled, rather proud of himself.

"That's a good idea. I'm sure that Donut would like to play with you. I think he plays on that team any way." Sister looked away from him and bit her lower lip.

"There are teams? Which one is blue team?" Caboose tugged at the blue shirt, proud of his color. "That's the team I'm on now so that's the team I should be on."

Sister placed both her palms up in front of her. She raised and lowered the left hand. "Blue team is the team where the guys like to play with girls." She then lowered and raised her right hand. "Red team is the team where guys like to play with guys."

"So then I need to find a lady. I don't dislike Donut and he's a red but I don't want to be a red. They are usually bad." Caboose frowned, trying to work it out in his head.

"Well, then after you get breakfast then we'll take you down to the park or store or something and find you a lady to play with. Maybe you, her, and I can play a game together first so that you can get the hang of the rules." Sister smiled at him.

"Oh, that would be fun. Maybe we can get that lady to join us for a game." Caboose pointed to the female figure that was moving toward them. "I think I know her."

"Caboose run, now." Sister recognized the figure right away. "That's one of those nurses that attacked us at that hospital."

"But she's a nice lady. Why can't we play with her?" Caboose didn't really remember a hospital, or a nurse.

"You don't want to play with her Caboose, she has a needle." Sister turned and ran. Luckily, that's all she needed to say to get Caboose to follow her as they ran away from the nurse.

* * *

Tucker walked down the street holding Junior to him. As he walked, the alien kept trying to look around, causing the blanket to fall down.

"Damn, stop moving Junior. I can't let them find out that you are an alien. If they do I don't know what they'll do and I'll be damned if they are going to do anything to you."

"Blarg." Junior curled up against his father's chest in joy at the contact and the fact that his father cared about him.

"Don't get all touchy-feely on me, I'm not that kind of person…unless I'm touching and feeling a lady. Bow chicka bow wow." Tucker bounced a bit as he said the words.

"Bow chicka honk honk," Junior said, causing Tucker to smile proudly.

"That's my son. I want to be mad at you for kicking me down a hole, leading me to monsters, and trying to kill me when we were going to leave that place, but you're my son, and you're so perfect." Tucker smiled softly. "Wonder how Tex is going to react to you being alive, and here. Don't you worry though; I'm not going to let her hurt you. She's a bitch, but you're my kid, and I'm going to protect you."

"Honk honk blarg." Junior struggled and forced Tucker to drop him. The alien kept the blanket around him so that it was still hard to tell that he was anything more than a very ugly small child.

"Well, if you want to walk I'm not going to complain. I don't want to be carrying you around if you don't want to be carried."

They had made it a bit of a way down the street before they realized that they were being followed. Tucker turned to look back at the thing that was following him. It had long arms and legs and oddly colored skin. It was slumped over and its head was like a swinging axe that had been cut in half. Its head swung as it moved almost in a rhythm.

Junior tugged on Tucker's pants and they sped up, trying to put more ground between them and the schism. The thing moved faster and Tucker started to panic. "This is not good."

* * *

"The dogs aren't out there anymore?" Alex moved over to the doors. "Wow, when did they leave? So then, can we leave?"

"Where would we go?" Alessa leaned a bit out of the door, looking up and down the road but saw nothing. "Back up about a foot," she glared back at Alex, realizing how close the male teen was to her. He backed up as she ordered, fearing she'd hit him.

"I'll leave the choices up to you," Alex said, looking around the house. He himself was fine staying there. To him it was starting to feel like home. "It would help if we knew where he went. Maybe we can find a clue." He turned and searched deeper into the house. "I mean we were looking for signs of him, we should be looking for like a note or something."

"Why would he leave a note?" Alessa set one hand on her hip and frowned at him. "I mean who would he have to leave a note to? The only people here are us."

"Maybe that guy with the pyramid head." Alex smiled, glad that he'd thought of something. "They were working together, talked to each other, though maybe that thing can't read."

"But they were working together, so why wouldn't the boogeyman be out with him?" Alessa furrowed her brow, wondering how that would work. The boogeyman moved so much slower than a normal human could run, or even walk. "I suppose it's still worth a look though."

The two split up and searched the house. Alessa was in the upstairs sewing room when Alex came in. "Did you find something?"

"Yeah, I found a note." He handed it over to her. She read it and examined the handwriting to be sure that it was his.

_Dear friend, _

_Have some business to take care of at the church. I'll be back hopefully, until then do whatever you have to and keep the house safe. He'll kill me if anything bad happens to it. _

_Draco_

"I think this is his." Alessa's face became calm in determination as she stared down at the note. "Then the church is where we are going to go."

She marched toward the door. Alex followed after her to watch her back. He was nervous about what they would find but knew that he couldn't talk her out of it.

* * *

Tex crossed her arms and frowned at the strange, disheveled woman. "What are you talking about? My daughter's only seventeen; she's not a mother to anything. The only guy she's really close to she hits every time he tries to flirt too much with her."

"She is to be mother of god. She does not need to know god to give birth to it. The failures of the past will be forgotten and your daughter will bring god to us and lift the darkness. I cannot let you leave. If you take her from the path that she walks, then god will not save us." The woman pointed at Tex and Harry. "Do not let them leave."

The people who were huddled in the church moved into action. They grabbed the two and blocked the door. Both Harry and Tex fought back but they could not break free. Tex kicked and punched at whatever bit of person that she could find. She broke free of the men that had a hold of her and jumped forward, tackling another man to the ground.

Something hard and metal hit Tex in the head a few times in quick succession while her guard was down. She fell unconsious.

~End chapter 9~


	10. Chapter 10

Silent Gulch Retribution Chapter 10

Church swung the pipe and the feral was sent flying. The two schisms that were moving closer closed in, and Church was forced to back up. He'd almost made it to his destination when It had sent him a ton of monsters to get rid of. He'd already killed four ferals and three lurkers. He could only hope that It wouldn't send a siam.

Church dodged one of the schism's attacks and swung the pipe, causing the monster to be pushed forward. The hit wasn't good enough to kill it. Church put away his lead pipe and pulled out a fire axe and held it at the ready. The schism attacked again and Church once more stepped out of the way to strike at it. He had sort of forgotten about the second one, though, which came up behind him and swung its head. It cut across Church's lower back. Church backed away from the two of them and they took a moment to realize that their prey had moved.

Church needed to find a way to take them on without leaving his back open to the other. He turned so that he had both of them in his sight as he took a moment to plan and catch his breath. The schisms moved forward, and he was forced to take action. He moved to the left of them and swung as quickly as he could at the open side of the monster. The axe head cut through the monster's skin but it didn't do all that much damage. It did knock it back enough to run into the other monster, tripping them both up and causing them to fall. Church took the chance and attacked, hacking off one of the monster's heads.

The other one slowly struggled to get up on its thin limbs. Church attacked its unprotected back and the axe hacked a long line along its body. The monster roared out, slowly turning. As it turned, Church swung again, hitting it a couple more times on the side before it was facing him again to attack. It lunged forward, and with surprising speed, caught Church between the two halves of its head that made up its mouth. Church put his hands up to stop it and winced as teeth cut into his palms. He lifted his foot and kicked at the monster's stomach, sending it flying back.

Church dropped his axe as he looked down at his palms. He quickly picked the axe back up, and ran toward the monster as it tried to get up. He put a foot on its chest and swung the axe like a golf club, hitting the monster hard in the side of the neck. He had a bit of trouble pulling it out as the handle slipped in his hands due to the blood. After a few seconds he managed to get it free, striking again. The monster struggled and spasmed, then fell limp to the ground. Church took a step back, looking around at the series of monsters that he had killed. He had to admit that he was getting rather good at this.

Church quickly wrapped up his hands to try to stop the bleeding, or at least improve his grip. He put away the axe and moved down to the harbor. He still thought it was stupid that he was going there on purpose, once more by choice, but he'd made his choice. No one got away with stealing from his daughter. He knew where Joshua would be, where It would be. It worked out fine for Church, he wanted the stuffed animal back, and he needed to talk to It.

He picked out an ideal boat and climbed aboard. He took a moment to figure out the controls before he started the boat and headed off across the lake. He was constantly watching the waters as he moved along, expecting something to pop up and try to kill him. Nothing came, though, and he managed to sort of dock his boat. He was close but still a bit far from the actual dock. He had to jump in order to get to the worn-out wood platform.

He looked around, noticing that there were no other boats. He didn't really expect there to be, deep down, and he wasn't sure if he was glad for that. It would mean that there might not be any unusual people here, or there'd only be the normal batshit crazy people.

He moved along the dock up the unsteady stairs toward the actual town. He nearly fell through the stairs at one point, cursing as he pulled himself up to the higher side. "Figures that It wouldn't put in any effort to make anything safer," he muttered as he continued up the stairs.

When he reached the top, he looked out at the familiar streets before him. Even with the thick fog, or maybe only because of the thick fog, the streets felt just like they did at Shepherd's Glen, but somehow they were worse. Maybe it was because he knew that unlike at Shepherd's Glen, where It would throw monsters at him only when it wanted to annoy him, here they were just wandering around. Most of them didn't even care about him if he got far enough away, more focused on some other task.

Church moved down the main streets, confident in where he was heading. He had been there before, and he never liked it there. It was always crawling with the bigger and badder of the monsters. He was sure that he'd seen at least a few siam and for once he wished that his friend was there. Pyramid always kept the siam away for some reason, like they weren't willing to take him on, but by some twisted logic Church was an ideal target. Maybe he'd get lucky; maybe It would let it stay in the normal world and not mess it all up again. He moved through the streets till he came to what he was looking for.

The church loomed before him and he took a deep breath and walked up the stairs, pausing at the door. He pushed it open and was surprised that he found it empty of monsters. It looked just like it had the day that he'd come to it for the first time, the day he met the woman that would change his life by pissing him off. He moved down the center of the church looking around for any sign of either of them. He found nothing and it annoyed him. He took a seat in one of the front pews, trying to figure out what to do next. He had been so sure that this was where Joshua would be.

He leaned back in the pew, staring up at the high ceiling, looking at the stained glass windows. They looked so normal compared to what this church really stood for. He closed his eyes, keeping his ears open for any sounds of activity.

His eyes snapped open as the sounds of sirens cut through the air. He stood up and looked around as the world around him changed. The brick walls became rusted steel. The windows that once held beautiful pictures broke and glass fell shattering onto the ground. The pews started to rot as though time was being sped up. The familiar tint of red surrounded them. Church turned to the main altar where he saw behind it the old tapestry fade away and slowly vanish, revealing a set of large metal doors. So it was calling him to it; he could be fine with that. He moved forward to the doors and they opened, as though his presence was enough to force them to open. Behind them was the main entry way of the otherworld church. He strolled in and the doors shut behind him. He looked back surprised at without having heard anything. A large metal bar had appeared locking the door shut and barbed wire was wrapped around it holding it in place.

Church got out his ceremonial knife, though it felt odd in his hand with the cloth still wrapped around his palms. He moved down the center, way past the broken and worn out pews. He moved up to the main alter and looked down at the table that had something odd carved into the surface. It was a five point star with what looked like holes for something to sit in.

"Damn it, what is it with you and puzzles? Fine, whatever it is I'll do it." He moved back down the main aisle way, looking around for anything that would fit whatever the puzzle was. He hated not having any clues to this kind of thing. He looked around and could find nothing in the main entrance. He moved down one of the sides, knife at the ready. For all he knew there could be a monster around every corner. He came into the first walkway and ducked under some boards that had been nailed up over the top half of the doorway. He looked around, seeing nothing at first. Then he found a few passages from some book, a few candlesticks, and an odd pentagon-shaped plate. He looked the plate over and found a picture of a star with stripes on it. He figured that these were what he must be looking for, the things that he needed.

He turned to move up the stairs but stopped as a smoker staggered down the stairs toward him. "Oh, come on." Church took a few steps back down into the main hall. Smokers were just an annoyance to him. He stood in one place, knife at the ready. When the creature reared back, spreading its ribs and inflating its lungs to attack, Church darted forward. He slashed forward, hitting the creature's lungs, and then quickly rolling to the side. The smoker was pushed back and vomited up some sludge. Church did the same thing one more time and the smoker fell to the ground.

"Please let that be the only thing here." When he got to the top of the stairs he found that it was the confessional area. He had always avoided this place. He just didn't like it here, but he had to find the rest of the plates. He started to search around the room. He checked every shelf and cabinet that he could find. He finally decided to check in the confessional booths. He checked the preacher side first and found nothing. He then moved into the other side and looked around. He finally found a pentagon plate with a feathered star on it. "God, this is stupid."

"There is nothing stupid about wanting to confess." A deep voice waft through the grate between the two sides of the booth. "Tell me, my child, what is it that you have to confess."

"I don't have anything to confess." Church scowled at the faceless voice. "I paid for my sins and I don't need you to tell me that someone whose opinion I don't care about forgives me."

"You have so much anger. Why not let some of it go?" The other voice was really starting to annoy Church. "Anger is part of a sin, wrath."

"I'll show you the sin or wrath if you don't shut the hell up." Church banged his fist against the grate. "I don't believe in those deadly sin craps. I've partaken in lust, wrath, pride, and sloth. It hasn't killed me yet. What killed me isn't your business. In fact, I like my anger. It's part of who I am, and I like it."

The voice didn't reply, so Church got out of the booth and noticed that the preacher's side no longer had a door. Instead, the door had been flung across the room and was broken against the wall. Church looked in the preacher's side and there was a headless legless body hanging in it, strung up by barbed wire. "I hate this place so much," he said, looking the body over. Its clothing was torn and bloody and something seemed familiar about it. He then realized that the bloody clothing was a light blue and that the faint outline of an eagle could be seen on the front.

"Oh, ha ha, very funny." Church stalked away from the confessional. "Is that supposed to be some commentary on how I hate myself or how I think I have problems or something?" Church knew that he wouldn't get a reply, he just needed to vent. "I'm tired of these damn mind games. I know what I did, save it for the Other." He moved back down the stairs.

He stopped as he spotted a pair of needlers walking toward him. He moved a bit up the stairs, knowing that they would have to come at him one at a time if they wanted to get to him. The first one moved up the stairs and Church held his knife at the ready. He blocked the first couple of strikes and was about to strike out and hit the vulnerable flesh of the needler when the blade of another needler dug into his shoulder. Instinctively, he raised his hands up, skillfully grabbing the second foreblade of the needler, keeping it from stabbing him through the neck. He struggled with the needler and the first one took its chance. It struck forward and its blades stabbed into Church's sides. This, though, left it vulnerable, and Church redirected the blade of the needler behind him down into the first needler's head. It fell to the ground dead. Church quickly grabbed his knife, slashing back behind him, and he knew that he hit the needler as it pulled its blade from his shoulder and backed up.

Before it could recover, Church moved up to its side and stabbed his knife into its back. He dragged the knife along its back and it twitched, spilling blood out of the wound before it finally fell. The last needler started to make its way up the stair and Church leaned against the wall. The needler reared back, striking out with one of its blades. Church dodged, and the needler's blade got stuck in the wall deep in the wood. Church moved to the side and the needler tried to slash at him. He managed to dodge the strikes. Church sat watching it and it felt secure enough that he wasn't going to attack. The needler was fully focused on trying to get it's blade out of the wall. Church waited till it was occupied, then moved forward, driving the knife through the needler's skull. It fell limply to the ground blade, still stuck in the wall.

Church leaned against the wall for a moment to take a break and look over his wounds. They hurt, a lot, but he would live, he'd lived through worse.

After a few minutes, Church got back up. He felt sore and in pain but that wasn't anything new. He made his way down the stairs, ready to face something else, but nothing came. He moved out into the main entryway and was surprised that nothing attacked him there. He made his way across to the hallway on the right side of the main entry.

He moved down, passing two doors and moving down to the final room. He found a large statue of what looked like a woman crying. He moved over to it, brushing away some of the cobwebs that hung from it. The plate wasn't hard for him to find. It was sitting at the statue's feet. He picked it up and looked it over, seeing that it had a star that appeared to have fur on it. He didn't quite get the connection yet, but he was sure that it would all fall together. He turned to leave the room and found himself staring at a schism that was walking toward him. He put away his knife and got out his axe. He took a deep breath and prepared himself for the fight.

The schism moved forward steadily, and Church cursed that the area was so cluttered. It meant that he couldn't move around as freely as he hoped. The schism swung its head and he dodged it, ducking under the second hit. He swung with his axe, taking out one of the creature's legs, and it fell to the ground. Church swung his axe again and chopped into the creature's neck until the head was cut off. He then moved slowly back to the hallway, being careful to still watch his back.

He crept into the next room and sighed as he saw a series of paintings. The one of the far left was a picture of a person whose body had been crushed and its skull caved in. It almost looked as though there was actual wet blood dripping down the painting. Church would have touched it to find out if it was actually still wet, but he knew that he wouldn't like the answer.

The painting on the far right was of a man whose chest had been torn open. The head was leaned back and a waterfall of blood seemed to be pouring down from a slash on the man's neck. The blood flow moved around the opened rib cage. There was nothing in the man's chest, only an empty darkness.

The painting in the center, though, annoyed Church. It was a profile picture of two Pyramid Heads facing each other. They stood with their hands out before them, gripping their great blades. The tips of their blades were buried in the ground near their feet and their hands were almost touching, making themselves perfectly symmetrical. One of the pyramid heads had a deep red helmet and a set of torn red feathered wings spread out behind it. The pyramid head on the other side had a blue tinted helmet and a pair of torn and bloody blue dragon wings behind it.

"Wow, what happened to you being more mysterious with this stuff? Or did you just get tired of trying to do that? Wouldn't blame you for it though, seen enough pictures that reference this vague this or that." He groaned and started looking around the room for the plate. He stared at the paintings, thinking that they could give him a hint. He then realized that all the paintings were focused toward the middle of the center painting. He got out his knife and cut through the canvas and was rewarded with the sight of a pentagon plate behind the canvas. He reached in and retrieved it. This one had a star with a set of wings on it.

Church turned around, expecting to find something, but he found nothing. There was no monster walking toward him, no threat to try to kill him. He moved slowly out into the hallway looking this way and that. He walked to the last room and hesitantly moved inside. The room had bookshelves everywhere, and he sighed as he looked around.

He moved along the shelves, looking for anything that stood out to him. He didn't notice any titles that really seemed to stand out to him at first until he spotted several copies of _Alice in Wonderland_. He picked them out and searched them, feeling triumphant as he found the secret compartment in the book and the final plate, which had a star with some horns on it. If there was one thing he knew, it was Alessa and she'd always loved _Alice in Wonderland_. He did hate to see that the pages had been cut out. It seemed like a waste of a book. He put the ruined version away and tucked one of the still good copies away for later.

He turned around and found what he had expected. A nurse was slowly making her way toward Church, drawn to his light. He quickly shut it off and the nurse seemed unsure for a moment, standing still, just twitching as it had nothing to attract it. Church put away his knife and drew out the lead pipe. He moved forward and swung the pipe, striking the nurse in the head. The blow didn't kill it, but knocked the monster about a bit. It staggered and he took the chance to swing again, this time aiming for its legs. Its legs gave out and it flailed about, cutting part of Church's arm as it went down. Church raised the pipe and brought it down, caving in the nurse's rib cage. The nurse continued grab for him, so he hit it, caving in most of its torso before it stopped.

He stood, staring down at the body before him on the ground. Flashes of Henry's surprised face and the amount of blood splatter that had covered the walls, furniture, and himself, filled his mind. The image quickly left and he turned to leave the room. He had done what he had to do and he wouldn't regret it.

He didn't find anything in the main area and he returned to the altar, laying out the plates. He looked them over, trying to figure out what they were about. He noticed the small carvings on each point and he looked at them. There was a sword, a jester, a mother and child, a woman in a dress, and a dead person. He was pretty sure that he understood what was going on. He took out the plate with the star with wings on it and put it in the opening near the picture of a dead person. The pentagon opened up and five points came out, making it a star. The face of the plate split into triangles and they spread out to match the star, revealing a picture of a dragon.

"I knew it; you and those damn things." He moved on to the sword and this time placed the plate with the striped star in the location. It did the same things as the first one, creating a star and revealing a picture of a tiger. He placed the horned star plate in the place of the jester and it opened to reveal an ox. He paused, though, over the picture of the mother as he looked at the two plates he had left. He decided to try the feathered star plate into the place near the mother picture. It opened to reveal a picture of a rooster. Church hesitated before he placed the final plate in the place of the woman. When he did, it opened to reveal a picture of a rabbit. Once it had, a set of hidden doors appeared behind Church and a trio of siam appeared.

Church turned to face them, knowing that he had to. The three monsters stood, staring at him. One of them charged forward and Church took a deep breath. He raced toward it and as it raised its hammer-hand, Church darted out of the way. The meat hammer fell to the ground and Church grabbed onto the leather straps on the creature's arm that bound it. The siam flailed and Church chose his moment perfectly, grabbing a hold of the female half of the monster. It seemed to panic as Church raised his knife up. He brought it down into the female half and cut down it. He had learned some time ago that the female half was the weak point on them. The siam moved around, trying to knock him off. Church continued to stab at its back until the thing finally slowly stumbled and fell. Church took in a deep breath, but regretted it as a second siam charged and swung its arm hitting Church. He was sent flying and hit the wall hard.

Church fell to the floor and slowly stood as the siam roared and prepared to charge again. Church struggled to his feet and almost completely got out of the way before the siam hit the wall. The force of the hit sent wood flying and part of it hit Church, knocking him down again. He struggled to his feet while the siam tried to recover from the hit. The third siam charged forward and Church rushed at it. He slipped under its legs as its hammers hit the ground where Church had been standing. Church got to his feet as quickly as he could and grabbed a hold of the female legs that stuck out of the monster's back. He pulled himself up on its back and it moved around, trying to throw him off. The second siam had fully recovered and now charged the other siam, intent on hitting Church. It raised its meat hammers and brought them down with all the force that it could. Church dropped from the third siam's back and to the floor. The second siam brought it's hammers down, crushing the third siam.

Church moved to the opposite side of the room from the remaining siam, trying to catch his breath. His body ached and he was having a bit of trouble standing. The siam turned to him and charged him. Church looked at the monster and for a moment wasn't sure if he was going to make it. He dodged out of the way of the siam's swing, but he wasn't able to get out of the way as it swung the hammer back. It hit him, and he was almost sent flying, but grabbed the leather straps that were wrapped around the creature's hammer hands. For a moment the siam didn't seem to know what do. Church let go quickly and moved to the creature's back where he drew his axe and struck at the monster's female side. The siam cried in pain as Church swung over and over until the beast fell to the ground.

The doors at the head of the altar opened and Church sighed, deciding what he wanted to do. He took a seat, hesitant to do anything until he felt better, but he knew that if he sat around much longer it would only be harder to get up. After a few minutes he finally picked himself up, straining as he did. Church moved toward the doors, standing outside them for a moment before he entered the door. It led down a hallway that made him feel claustrophobic. The walls were dirty metal and the series of metal fans behind grates to one side were rather unnerving. He moved down to the door at the end and opened it. It didn't open up to what he expected. It opened up to a square room that had bloody walls and broken pipes hung from the ceiling.

Church walked into the room and winced as he heard the door slam shut behind him. He wasn't surprised when he heard something walking over the metal ground. Claws scratched at the ground and a monstrous tiger appeared out of the shadows. It was a black tiger with white stripes covering its body. It was four feet tall at the shoulder and watched Church as it stalked around the room. Church moved along with it, trying to keep it on the other side of the room. The tiger growled and Church hesitated as he looked into its green eyes. He recognized them right away. His hands shook as he realized he was going to have to fight it. He didn't know if he could kill it. It felt wrong to him.

The tiger, though, didn't hesitate. It raced across the room and pounced at Church. Church dove out of the way just in time to avoid the sharp claws. He hit the ground hard and his injuries ached with renewed pain. The big cat turned to look toward him and Church managed to get to his feet. He didn't want to, but he had to kill it, he had no choice. Church drew out his knife and faced the monster as it moved toward him. There wasn't really much of an opening as the claws came striking down, and Church moved out of the way. He struck out with the knife and it sliced along the leg of the feline. It roared in pain and the sound made Church feel guilty. He ran across the room as far away from it as he could. It turned its head to its injured leg, and as it ran its tongue slowly over the injury a few times, the cut vanished.

"Great, it can heal itself." Church took a deep breath. "I feel bad for hurting it and every time that I do, it just fixes itself."

The tiger turned back toward him, slowly moving forward. Church tried to move away, but it was making him move closer and closer to a corner. He would be vulnerable there and he didn't want to be somewhere that he couldn't get away. Soon enough he felt the two walls meet and he could see in the feline's eyes that it knew that he was trapped.

The tiger pounced and Church dove out of the way—but not quite far enough. It was not hard at all for the big cat to turn. It jumped up and pounced on his back, pinning him to the ground. Its claws scratched down Church's back, and he cried out in pain as the claws ripped through his flesh. It continued to claw at his back until Church finally was able to move enough to stab his knife into the paw that was pinning him down. The beast jumped off him, moving over to the other side of the room.

Church lay on the ground, trying to recover, but the pain was too much. He tried to move and ended up rolling over onto his back, causing him to let out another cry of pain as the fresh claw cuts hit the ground. The tiger was not far away, licking its paw to fix the wound. Once it was done it turned back to Church madder than ever. It moved over to him and placed on paw on each of his shoulders, pinning him down. The cat opened its mouth and dug its fangs into his shoulder, sinking them deep into his flesh. Memories of the dragon's fangs ripping out his shoulder flashed through his mind as the animal shook its head, trying to tear more at the flesh. Church gripped his knife hard and stabbed with it, burying it to the hilt deep in the tiger's neck. The tiger let go of his neck and fell back off of him.

Church pulled the knife free of the tiger's neck and looked down at the dying monster. He felt awful about it, and he should have. He put his knife away and moved over to its side. The beast growled at him but it was too injured to do much of anything.

He knelt down beside it and wrapped his arms around its neck. "I'm sorry." He sat down beside the dying feline. The tiger calmed down as Church moved its head onto his lap. He didn't mind the blood that dripped down onto his pants, trying to ease the guilt for what he had done. He leaned into the soft fur feeling the effects of the blood loss. He felt it move and felt himself fall to the floor without the energy to get up.

Something moved over his shoulder where the tiger had bitten him. It didn't hurt, though, like he had expected. Rather, it felt good. His shoulder hurt less and less with each pass. His eyes opened enough to see the large cat lay down beside him and he could see that his shoulder was no longer bleeding. He turned toward the feline next to him and buried his face into its fur, taking a deep breath. It looked like her, acted like her, and even smelled like her. Church felt something ache inside him and he clung to it. He felt tears in his eyes, which fell to be absorbed into the dear monster's fur. He cursed It for getting so good at finding ways to torment him. He closed his eyes and drifted off into his pain.

* * *

Joshua ran into the room, still hugging Harry to him. "The mean guy is after me." Joshua approached It. It sat in the chair and watched him eying the dragon. "He wants to take Harry from me."

"That dragon does not belong to you." It reached Its hand out. "Give it to me now," It ordered. Joshua was reluctant but eventually handed it over. "Where did you get this?"

"I got it in a house. A lady with red hair thought that it was hers." Joshua pouted and looked down as though he had just been scolded. "She tried to take it from me, too."

"Leave now before he gets here." It waved the boy away and Joshua ran off and out a door. It looked down at the dragon, tapping Its fingers on the arm of Its chair as It frowned. It turned its chair so that It was facing the door that It knew he would soon come through.

~End chapter 10~

A/N: I'm sad at the lack of reviews I get for this story. I'd really like to hear if there are any aspects of this story that you really like, or that you want to see more of. Come on people, review after you read.


	11. Chapter 11

Silent Gulch Retribution chapter 11

Simmons fell to his knees, coughing and holding his throat, trying to expel the toxic gas from his lungs. Grif grabbed his arms, pulling him to the side, while still keeping one hand over his own mouth.

"I'll get its attention, you pull yourself together." Grif moved close to the monster to get it to focus on him.

The charred monster slowly turned to Grif and the orange soldier moved away from Simmons, drawing the monster away from his partner. It reared back and spewed the dark gas toward him. Grif ran for it, covering his mouth to try to keep himself from breathing in the gas.

The monster turned toward him and started to stagger forward. Grif decided to use it as his chance and ran forward, knife ready to strike. He wasn't quick enough to really hurt the monster. When Grif got within range the monster's ribcage opened to strike him. Grif got his arm up in time to block the blow and he was hit back by the monster. He fell to the ground, dropping his knife, and it slid away from him. The monster then started to move forward toward the fallen soldier. It reared back preparing to strike.

Simmons came up behind the monster. "Stay away from my man!" He had recovered from the gas and had grabbed his knife. He stabbed it into the exposed lung, and the creature cried out in pain as it was stabbed. A burning liquid poured out onto Simmons' arm.

The monster fell to the ground, but Simmons was more focused on the fact that his sleeve had caught fire. Grif got to his feet and ran over to Simmons. He used his hands to pat out the fire on his partner's arm.

When the fire was out, the two solders sat down and caught their breath. Simmons stared at his arm and the slight burns that he had received. "Thanks for saving me."

Grif refused to look at Simmons. "Not a problem."

Simmons grabbed Grif's hands and turned them over to look at his slightly burnt palms. "We need to do something about these."

"I'm fine." Grif pulled his hands away. "We don't have anything to do anything about it anyway."

Simmons grabbed his sleeve, pulling it as hard as he could and tearing it at the shoulder. He then grabbed it with both hands and tore it into strips. "Give me your hands."

"What are you doing?" Grif furrowed his brow. "Why should I?"

"Just give them to me." Simmons grabbed Grif's hands again and slowly bandaged them with the torn shirt sleeve. "There, that should help."

Grif winced as the other man bandaged his hands. "I hate you, Dick." Grif took his hands back when Simmons was finished.

"I hate you too, Dex." Simmons stood up. He held his hand out to the other man. Grif reluctantly took it and Simmons pulled him up.

"You can let go of my hand." Grif said, once he was standing and Simmons didn't let go. "Seriously, let go."

"Are you sure you're all right? You got a bad hit by that thing." Simmons's worry was obvious by the frown on his face.

Grif pulled his hand free from the other man. "I'm fine, it just knocked me down. It wasn't that bad. Now get moving."

Simmons paused for a moment, watching Grif continue on the way they had been going before he moved to follow after him. Once he'd caught up he grabbed Grif's wrist again to make sure they didn't get separated. "Thanks for saving me."

"Yeah, whatever." Grif didn't look back at him.

* * *

"Sarge, I think that it's catching up." Donut glanced over his shoulder at the monster that was moving toward them. It was slowly getting closer and closer to them.

"Donut, just keep moving and don't look back." Sarge's frown deepened. "Look, there's a building up ahead, we can go in that and it won't be able to follow."

"How can you be sure that it won't be able to follow us?" Donut turned from the monster to the red Sergeant.

"Because it doesn't have any arms." Sarge shook his head. "It can't open a door without arms, or hands. That's just logic."

"I guess that does make sense." Donut turned his attention toward the building. "You know, I've never seen that building on base before."

"Neither have I. Must be a new one that they built recently." Sarge surveyed the building. "It looks kind of like a school. But there's no school on the base."

"Hey, that school looks kind of familiar." Donut examined the words on the front of the school. "Um, Sarge, I don't think that we want to go in there."

"Why would we not want to go into the one place that might save us from a monster that's following us?" Sarge crossed his arms.

"Because I think that's the same school that we went into in Silent Hill and then all those bugs attacked us." Donut pointed toward the name painted on the front of the building. "Don't you think the bugs would attack us again?"

Sarge didn't reply right away. "Donut, I think that thing following us is a bigger problem. I'm more worried about it than some bugs. Now get your ass in that school."

Donut sighed and turned, moving up the way toward the school's front doors. "I still think this is a bad idea."

"No one cares what you think." Sarge started to walk and they made their way up the steps to the front doors of the school.

They pushed open the doors and made sure they closed all the way behind them. "Yeah, this is definitely the same school." Donut looked around at the familiar surroundings. "So what do we do from here?"

"I say this time we go to the theater since we went to the gym last time." Sarge moved down the hallway.

"Sarge, I don't think that's the right way." Donut glanced at the map that the Sergeant always seemed to ignore. But then Donut realized that he wouldn't be able to convince the red soldier to change his mind. He sighed and moved after his leader.

* * *

The two blue soldiers finally came to a stop to catch their breaths.

Sister looked around and didn't see the nurse anywhere. "I think that we lost her."

"So then the bad needle is gone?" Caboose's eyes searched the area nervously. Sister nodded and he relaxed a bit. "So what do we do now?"

Sister looked around at the stones around them. "Caboose, is there a cemetery on base?" Sister walked up to one of the stones and knelt down, reading the name. She reached her hand out, running her hand over the name 'Daniel Shepherd'.

"No, there isn't one. The only cemetery that there is on this planet is off base." Caboose looked around from grave to grave. "Where are we?"

"Well, we aren't on base anymore because this is a cemetery." Sister stood up and turned to look at Caboose. "I don't know how we'll make it to Donut's house now. I'm not even sure what direction it is." She looked around to see if there were any structures.

"I don't know which way it is, but I am still hungry," Caboose said. "I think we should go that way?" Caboose decided, starting to walk off deeper into the cemetery.

"Caboose, don't walk off without me." Sister moved off to follow the blue soldier. "Caboose, it might be dangerous around here. We shouldn't split up. Why are you going this way, anyway?"

"Because Church is this way, I'm sure of it." Caboose didn't stop walking or even look back at Sister. "I didn't mean to leave you behind. I just knew that I had to go this way."

"Caboose, we really have to talk. Church is dead, we all saw it, then saw it again yesterday." Sister placed a hand on Caboose's shoulder. "You have to let him go. Maybe his grave is that way, which I doubt because we never did bury him, and the UNSC cremated him when they found his body."

"But we thought he was dead, and then he was there talking to us yesterday." Caboose shook his head and closed his eyes, unwilling to accept it. "So maybe he isn't dead. I can't believe that he's dead. I don't know what I'd do if Church was dead."

"Caboose, you shot him with a tank, you killed him." Sister removed her hand from his solder. "He was dead back then, a ghost. How do you know what we saw yesterday wasn't a trick made by this place?"

"Because I know Church, that was Church." Caboose flexed his fingers staring down at the ground. "I don't know much but I know Church. In fact I don't think I know much other than Church. He's my best friend, after all."

"I don't know, Caboose, he seemed to not like you at all. I mean you and I seem to be closer friends than he was with you. Do you even know what planet he grew up on?" Sister frowned at the blue soldier.

"No, he never talked about his life before Blood Gulch, well except for a bit about Tex. He said they were going to get married but for some reason they didn't. He told me Sidewinder is cold." Caboose smiled happily, remembering the old times.

"That's weird, I wonder why he never talked about it." Sister moved a bit ahead. "Damn, this fog makes this place so much more creepy."

"I know; it reminds me of the bad place, and that swamp that we went to on that quest with the alien that got Tucker pregnant." The fog was so thick that Caboose couldn't see his footing, causing him to place his foot in the wrong place and fall forward into a hole.

"Caboose, are you all right?" Sister moved to the side of the hole and knelt down to see the fallen soldier.

Caboose sat up and shook his head to get rid of the dirt that had fallen on him. "Yeah, I'm all right; I just fell in a hole. I wonder if this means I get a key that unlocks death."

"This looks like a grave to me." Sister looked at how long the hole was. "Wonder whose grave it's going to be."

"I don't know, but I don't want to be in it." Caboose tried to scramble out of the hole. With a little help from Sister he was finally able to climb out. Sister let him sit on the ground catching his breath. She moved over to the tombstone at the head of the grave to see if she could find a name.

What she found was a very elaborate grave marker. It was a stone statue of what appeared to be a male angel floating in air. The angel wore long flowing robes that pooled at its feet and the only way she could tell it was supposed to be floating was the two feet that peeked out from under the robe a few inches off the main base. The angel's head was lowered, looking down toward the ground with its arms spread out from its sides. The feathered wings were spread out behind it, giving the image that they were what was keeping it in the air. Sister leaned in closer to look at the hands and face of the angel. There were odd lines drawn on the exposed skin in patterns.

She turned her attention to the name plate as Caboose walked up behind her. "So who is supposed to be where I was?" Caboose brushed the dirt off of his pants.

She paused for a moment before reading the plate aloud. "Leonard Church, a man of many creations." She looked back at Caboose frowning. "At least he does have a grave."

"Well, Church isn't in it." Caboose stood up defiantly. "That means he's not here. That means he must be in this direction." He turned, heading off in a random direction.

Sister followed after him, seeing no harm in letting the ignorant soldier lead the way. "Hey Caboose, when has Church ever made anything?"

"I don't think he's ever made anything," Caboose frowned. "Why does if he makes things matter? I made muffins once."

Sister crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side. "Well, if he never made anything, then how could he have 'many creations'?" She followed after the blue soldier, trying to figure it out.

* * *

Alex and Alessa walked down the street silently, keeping their ears open for any sound of the missing dogs that had once been chasing them. The silence was odd between them and Alex fidgeted with the hem of his shirt, feeling uneasy. He blurted out the first idea that came to mind. "So, did you ever check out that book that that guy left yesterday?"

Alessa looked at him for a moment blankly. "Wait, what do you mean?"

"You know, that guy at the library took the journal but left a book." Alex looked over at her and frowned. "Did you ever read it or anything?"

"I didn't even look at it." Alessa glanced away from him, a bit embarrassed she hadn't remembered it. "I think I did put it in my backpack though." She grabbed it off her back and reached in to search for the book. She finally pulled the book out and slid her backpack back on.

"So what is it?" Alex tried to move closer to get a look at the cover. "You are going to tell me, right? You're not going to leave me in the dark?"

"For the love of god, just calm down." Alessa shot him a warning look before turning her attention fully to the book. "Title says it's something called Through the Fog: A Skeptic in Silent Hill." She opened the book and flipping through it. "That's weird; none of these pages seem to be written on the same kind of paper."

"Are any of the books about this place what they say they are?" Alex moved behind Alessa and opened her backpack, digging through it.

"What in hell's name do you think you are doing?" Alessa glanced over her shoulder at Alex. "You do realize that you aren't being very secretive about trying to search through my stuff."

"I'm not trying to be secretive." Alex pulled out a book but frowned as he realized it was a textbook. He pushed it back into the bag and searched for his target. "I'm looking for that bible thing that you got at the library yesterday, which, by the way, you stole, because you didn't check it out."

"It wasn't a library book. It was only in the library." Alessa stopped so that Alex could look though her bag easier. "Why do you want that bible?"

"Doesn't mean it didn't belong to someone else." Alex pulled the bible out of her backpack and zipped it back up. "That guy did something with some blood and wrote or something in it." He opened the book and stared at the drawing on the first page.

"What is that?" Alessa looked at the symbol. It was a group of three circles inside a larger circle with lines crossing through the outer circle to each of the inner circles. "I've never seen that before."

"I haven't seen it before, either. Wonder why that guy drew it in here." Alex flipped to the index and found what he was looking for before he flipped through the pages to a particular story.

"What are you reading?" Alessa glanced over from the book that she was reading. She wasn't really able to make much sense out of it at the moment.

"I'm reading that story that's supposed to be about me, or at least you think that's about me." Alex didn't look up from the book. He weaved a bit as he tried to read.

"I didn't really read all of it so I don't know if it's about you. I only read enough to know that it was about an Alex Shepherd and his brother, Joshua." Alessa moved a bit away from him to be sure that he wouldn't run into her.

"See, now it can't be me that it's about. I don't have a brother." Alex shook his head. "All you people just don't know who I am. Think I'm this guy from this book. That strange guy thought I was this guy as well."

"How can you be sure that you aren't him? You are adopted, for all you know you do have a brother out there." Alessa turned her attention back to her book. "Damn, why does none of this make any sense?"

"Are all them written on different paper but are a single book or what?" Alex was half listening to her as he read his own book.

"They all seem to be different things. Some of them look like pages of diaries, notes, pages from books, things like that. They are all bound in here, though, like they are supposed to be in this book. Here's a longer one, something called Simple Works." She started reading the story.

There was a long silence as the two read and walked down the street. They were unaware of the world around them or the fact that they had no idea where they were going. After a while Alessa was left just staring at the same page while Alex finished his own book. He shut it after a while and stopped dead in his tracks. Alessa stopped with him and closed her own book, looking up at him. They looked at each other, the silence thick with questions between them. Alessa could see the same look in his eyes as was in hers. The same unsure, scared, and questioning-everything-he-knew-look. "Alessa, who are we?"

There was a scraping noise. The two teens turned to look toward the sound. A midsized man monster stood in the middle of the road. It wore dirty brown robes and had a sack over its head. Its bloody gloves flexed as it gripped its bladed tonfa-like weapons. It scraped the blades together slowly. "I think that question will have to wait."

* * *

Tucker ducked down under the swinging axe-like head.

He dodged the second strike. "Damn, how am I going to kill this thing?" The monster continued to move toward him, trying to get a better angle of attack. Tucker backed up until his back hit a fence post. He felt at the wood until he found a loose board and tugged on it as hard as he could. After a moment of struggling he finally managed to pull it free. He held it in both hands like he once held the lead pipe. He stood still, letting the monster move closer to him. He waited until he'd dodged the second strike and then swung the board. It struck the monster's side and it didn't seem to do much damage besides forcing the monster to take a few steps to the side.

Tucker moved back away from the monster. "I am so boned." He glanced over at Junior, who was standing over to one side. The alien didn't seem worried in the slightest about their situation. "You going to help?"

Junior looked over at him and shrugged. "Honk blarg honk." He looked around and then up toward the sky. "Blaaaarg."

"You are useless in a fight." Tucker nearly fell to the ground as the monster swung at him again. He ran over to Junior, scooping the alien up off the ground and making a mad dash for it. He dropped the wooden board behind him as he ran.

* * *

Tex's head ached as she slowly opened her eyes. She looked up at the painted ceiling of the church. There was a set of murals above her. The first one was simple. A man wrapped in a red sheet lying on his back with his head pointed toward the front of the painting. A woman in a white sheet seemed to be crawling up his side. A third figure seemed to be emerging from between them lying over the man's stomach. The second mural was of the same man and woman both clad in white sheets. The woman held a reed in her hand while the man had a serpent wrapped around his body. The red sheet from the earlier picture was held in the man's hand, held above his head.

It was the third picture that got her attention. It showed eight people gathered around a single figure. The red sheet from the earlier pictures was spread over the top of the picture, as though it were the sky, and hung down in the middle. The ninth figure was what had caught Tex's attention. The figure was a woman who seemed to be coming from the red sheet. She wore a red dress that matched the sheet behind her. At this distance she couldn't be sure, but the figure's face and red hair reminded her of Alessa. The fourth picture showed the same figure from the third picture being held aloft by other odd beings. The woman looked so similar to Alessa yet she looked different. She couldn't put her finger on what was different.

The fifth image showed the woman lying in bed, seemingly dying. The people had gathered around her, mourning her approaching death. The one after it was simply a family of three standing in line before a table of candles, most likely performing some sort of religious action.

Soft chanting echoed through the church. Tex turned to her left and saw Harry lying beside her, still blacked out. She turned to look to her left, where she saw the main stairs of the main alter. A woman with brown hair tied back in a ponytail was kneeling at the top of the stairs, leading the others in the group prayer. She wasn't the same woman from before; this woman was too young to be her.

The woman let her head fall back and spread her arms wide, as though willing the embrace of some unseen person.

"Stained by the evils of this world, we hold our sorrows with us.  
Only you can heal us these wounds. Each morning, afternoon, evening  
and night we call out your name and pray for the day of the Miraculous Crescent.  
I give to you unreservedly my body and my eternal soul.  
Whatever darkness may befall me, I will endure with you beside me.

She raised her head, looking out at the praying people in the pews around them. She looked them over as she said the next words.

"As proof of your miraculous power, guide our obedient and willing souls to the Road to Paradise, oh lord.  
We will not give in to the power of temptation as long as we have you in our hearts."

Her hands once more returned to her front in the traditional form of praying. She would say one line and the followers would repeat it back.

"Oh lord, save us with your compassion.  
Oh lord, shower us with your blessings.  
Oh lord, favor us with your abundance."

The people fell silent and the woman stood, walking down the stairs to stand a few feet away from Tex. "I see that you are awake." She knelt down beside her. "You should rejoice, for you will bear witness to the rebirth of god. How lucky your daughter is to be giving birth to god."

"My daughter isn't giving birth to anything, and if your god puts a hand on her I'll smash its face in." Tex glared at the other woman. "Now untie me." She struggled against the rope that bound her hands behind her back.

"There is no one that can stop it now. Alessa will give birth to god and all who believe will walk the path to Paradise. Sadly, though, it seems you do not believe so you will be left behind." The woman stood and moved over to Harry. "The priestess has told me that this man is a sin against god. He once attacked god and he must die for his heresy."

"Get away from him." Tex fought harder against her bonds. "Harry, wake up. You have to wake up." There was no reply or movement from the man. "Damn it all!"

"Lillian, retrieve the priestess so that we may be gone of this devil in human form." The woman waved her hand toward the main altar. A young girl who looked to be about fifteen stood up and nodded, moving up the stairs and through a door to the back rooms of the church.

The woman stood and turned to the believers. "When the priestess comes we shall spill the blood of this heretic. The sacrifice will draw the mother to us and we can assist in the birthing of god. If he is not enough then we shall spill the blood of the nonbeliever."

There was a horrified muffled scream from the head of the church. Everyone turned in time to see Lillian burst through the door in tears and sobbing.

"What has happened, my child?" A woman moved forward to take Lillian into a comforting embrace. Tex guessed that she must have been the girl's mother from the way that Lillian clung to her for support.

"It's the priestess. Someone has killed her." Lillian cried into her mother's shoulder. "There's so much blood and she's all cut up."

"Stay here." The woman moved up the stairs and through the back door. There was a long silence where the only noise that could be heard was Lillian's sobbing and Tex struggling against her restraints. The woman came out about five minutes later, her dress partially covered in blood. "There has been a demon in our sanctuary."

There was a scared gasp from the people, and the woman held her hand to silence the chatter. "Calm yourself, my fellow believers. This is a test of our faith. A demon is testing our faith to god and we must stand strong and keep our faith. Demons such as this man have always stood in our way." She pointed to Harry. "Bring him to the table."

The people jumped to do as they were told, glad to be the mindless sheep they had become in their fear. They grabbed Harry and carried him up the stairs to place him on the sacrificial table. They moved his arms so that his hands were above his head and he was laid out as flat as he could be without removing the ropes.

"Harry, wake up!" Tex cursed that she was unable to do anything to stop what was about to happen. She shouted toward the ceiling as she struggled in vain against the ropes.

The woman moved up to the side of the table, a foot-long blade in her hand. She raised it above her head and took a deep breath as she closed her eyes.

"Today we destroy a demon.  
He shall not stand in the way of god's promise.  
Let the fall of his blood call god's mother to us.  
We shall see the safe birth of god to this world and remove all threats."

She finished and stabbed the knife down into Harry's stomach. She drew the blade across his stomach and let the blood flow from the wound and onto the table and floor. Some of the people took a step back and some remained right where they were. "Come to us, mother of god, we shall see you safe."

"You're all crazy. There is no god in this place, only devils." Tex looked over toward the table and saw that Harry had woken at the stab of the knife into his body. He lay in shock and pain, staring at the ceiling above him.

He looked over toward Tex and she could see the light leaving his eyes as the life left him with his blood. His mouth moved and Tex was sure that she must have read his lips wrong. He said it again this time louder. "The demon speaks," one of the men said.

"You have words of repentance, demon?" The woman took a step toward Harry's head so that she could hear him better.

Harry struggled for breath but he managed to get a good enough breath to shout his last words. "Alessa is dead. She died when I killed your god!" He gave one last struggled breath and his heart stopped.

The church fell into silence and the followers looked to the woman for guidance. Tex remained staring at Harry's body.

~End Chapter 11~


	12. Chapter 12

Silent Gulch Retribution: Chapter 12

Church leaned his elbow against the side of the car door and stared out into the fog. "I can't believe I'm doing this." He toyed with the knife in his hand. He rested his head in his other hand, frowning. He glared down at the radio as the song switched. The deep bass line and haunting guitar seemed just right for the situation.

"We do what we have to for whatever reasons we have." The woman beside him didn't even look over. Her eyes remained steadily on the road before her. "It's not like we do this for our health."

"Well, it's a bit different for you. It doesn't ask you to do the kinds of things that It asks me to do." Leonard returned his gaze back out the window.

"At least you get some excitement. Maybe what you have to do isn't always fun for you, but at least you aren't stuck doing errands for It." The woman frowned at that. "This is the kind of shit that I get stuck doing all the time."

"That must really suck. Going from being a cop to being a driver for errands must have been hard." Church frowned. "Especially the way that you died. That was totally unfair for you. I mean being possessed, not cool."

"You got that damn right." Cybil glanced down at the radio as it slowly filled with static. Her eyes returned to the road and she slowed a bit, moving out of the way of a smoker that was making its way down the road. The static faded and she sped up again. "At least I don't have to kill people."

"Well, I mainly kill monsters, or whatever evil things It throws at me. I just hate it when It uses them against me." Church leaned back in the seat as the outline of a building appeared. "Guess that's where we are heading."

"Yeah, that's where It wants us to go." Cybil slowed the car as they neared the gate. Church looked out to see the corpses of the two guards being devoured by a group of grotesque dogs.

"Double heads, I haven't seen those in a long time. I mean, they hardly ever show up." Church watched the split-headed dogs ripped into the bloody corpses of the people.

"Well, it makes sense to me for them to be here. I mean, consider what they seem to represent." Cybil turned the car down a side road. They passed by a large building where a group of soldiers were hiding behind some barriers, shooting out at a group of nurses that were advancing on their position. Church looked back after they passed as a Siam ran across the road to charge the soldiers.

"I don't understand what you mean?" Church turned back around and watched as they pulled up to a rather small building. "Not exactly what I expected."

"Don't ask me about it. I just go where It tells me to." Cybil leaned back in her seat as she put the car in park. "Have fun, big man."

"Well, I guess that It knows best." Church shrugged and opened the car door. He shut it and leaned down so that he could look through the window. "Thanks, Cybil. You going to be waiting for me when I'm done?"

"Unless It calls me to do something else, I'll be right here." She smiled at him and leaned against her own door. "Now get to it. I don't want to wait to long."

"I'll try not to make you wait." Church stood up straight again and turned to the building. He walked up to the doors and found that there had only been one guard, though it was hard to tell it had been human. The only clue it had been a guard was the bits of green cloth that had landed far enough away to escape the blood. He walked past it, covering his mouth to keep the smell from overpowering him.

He moved down the hallways, not sure of where he was heading, but knowing it was the right way. That was just the way that things went. It told you where to go by just feeling. At least it meant he didn't have to try to decipher a poem or riddle to figure out where to go. He didn't know enough about the place to be able to figure anything out. His feet moved without him telling them to, following an invisible path. His hand reached out running fingers over the cold metal. He didn't bother to look over as his fingers ran across something wet. He already knew what it was, or at least he was pretty sure he knew what it was. He smiled to himself at the thought that maybe someone would come by later and wonder what had left the streaks along the wall.

He came to a halt as he reached large steel door that had been torn open. He moved forward enough to look at the twisted part of the metal. From the bends, it appeared something had jammed something large into the side of the door and used the object as a lever to force it open. It looked familiar to Church and he wondered if He had done it. Church squeezed through the opening to the other side and stopped. He took a step back and felt his back meet the door. The first five feet of the hallway were covered with blood. Little chunks of what seemed to be raw meat littered the floor around him.

Church's eyes, though, were focused on something that was crouched at the end of the hallway. The large form had its back to him, uncaring that he was there. Tattered wings lay limply from the beast's back while the long tail whipped about, its spaded end scraping over the metal. Church took a deep breath and moved away from the door, walking toward the monster. The creature suddenly stopped its actions, shifting so that it could look back at Church. The monster's eyes stared at him, unblinking even with the blood dripping from its stitched-up head wound. It growled around the hunk of flesh in its mouth. Church didn't back down under the monster's gaze.

The monster watched as Church neared. When he was about three feet away the dragon stood up and backed away from him. Church glanced down at the corpse that was almost eighty percent devoured. The dragon thrashed around a bit and Church watched as the monster shifted and changed. One side of the monster slowly covered with blood while the other side cleared of all dirt, its hide nearly shinning. Flesh tore and bones snapped as the beast's skull slowly split along the same line that it changed from clean to bloody. The two halves continued to thrash about as the beast's entire body split along the dividing line. Slowly new bones grew to replace the missing ones. Organs filled the torsos, muscles grew to cover the bones, veins snaking along them to provide blood to the newly grown muscles, skin quickly grew over it covering the two dragons' vulnerable bodies.

The two newly formed dragons stared at Church and he simply looked at them. The clean dragon moved over to one side of the door behind them. Its cobalt hide stood out against the gray wall behind it as it sat up proudly with a spark of hope in its eyes. The blood dragon stood up backing up, to the other side of the door. It sat down, teeth bared, neck arched and head lowered, wings spread just a little bit as if ready to attack, eyes filled with the fire of hatred.

"Oh, so creative," Church muttered, moving forward and past the body. The large metal doors slid open and he walked into the laboratory.

Church knew right away that the man sitting at the examination table was who he was supposed to find. He stopped three feet away from the man. "Do you know why I am here, sinner?" He hated to talk in such a manner but it was the way that It wanted him to talk, so he couldn't stop himself from falling into the role.

"Well, I can take a good guess." The man's thick southern accent seemed familiar to Church. "Though, honestly, there is a long list of reasons why you would be here. I am a bit curious as to which one is your reason."

"It will tell you the rest; I am only here to collect you. Will you come willingly?" Church hoped that he would just come along. If he had to use force then things were going to get bloody. On top of that he didn't want to hurt an old man.

The man stood and turned to look at Church. "Well, I have to admit I wasn't really expecting you to come get me." He reached over, grabbing the cane that was leaning against the table. He slowly walked past Church. "Well then we should get going. I hope you have a car waiting for us. I can't walk very far."

"Yeah, we have a car and driver waiting outside for us," Church informed him, speeding up enough to pass him and lead the way. He didn't like the idea that the target was walking in front of him. He wasn't really afraid of being stabbed in the back by an old man.

"Good, then I call shotgun." The man smirked as Church glared back at him. It took them several minutes to come to the entrance.

Cybil was waiting for them and Church opened the door for the man to get in. "Glad you didn't take too long. Things are getting a bit hot. Seems the soldiers have pulled out the rockets on the Siams. He had to step in."

Church chuckled as he got into the back seat of the car. "He will tear them limb-from-limb." He rotated in the seat so that he could put his feet up on the seat beside him. "They will be wishing soon to go back to Siams."

"Hey, get your damn feet off the seat. Who raised you? Ferals?" Cybil snapped and Church complied with the request.

"What's the big deal, everything from that place gets ruined anyway. I'm just making it fit in with a little blood." Church crossed his arms over his chest. "Just drive."

"Yeah, as is proven by the blood you've already left on the seat, and the doors probably, and on my carpet." Cybil put the car in drive and took off down the road.

"Sorry about that, can't really help it. It works in bloody ways so my job is bloody." Church shrugged looking out the window.

The drive was silent as they made their way down the abandoned roads. The car came to a halt outside the steps of a church. "Well, we are here." Cybil glanced over at the old man. "Best of luck, hope you can repent for whatever you did."

Church got out of the car and paused outside for a moment as he chased off some Ferals that were moving closer to the car. "Miss, there is no way that I could ever repent for the sins I have committed." The old man stared out the window at Church as he said the words. A second later Church opened the door and the man exited the car. Slowly they made their way up the steps of the church and Cybil took off.

"I have to warn you, you're going to regret this." Church grabbed the handle of the doors and pushed with all his strength, throwing the doors open. The simple church was lit by nothing but the light of the candles placed around the walls. Church motioned to the man and moved forward.

Church walked down the carpet of the center aisle with the old man close behind. He stopped when he reached the last line of pews and looked forward at the woman who knelt before the altar at the front of the church.

"He came without a fight? Not exactly what I was expecting." It said as It stood up and turned around. The face of Heather smiled at the two men. "We should go somewhere more private for our discussion." It turned and put Its hands behind Its back as it briskly made Its way up the stairs. The two men followed it into one of the back rooms where a set of four chairs had been set up in a circle. "Your services will no longer be needed, Dad."

"I told you to stop calling me that." Church frowned at her and turned around, leaving the room reluctantly.

It sat down in one of the chairs and the old man sat down across from It. "So Director, shall we talk about your wife?"

* * *

The man moved through the hallways of the otherworld, ceremonial dagger in hand. He knew each twist and turn of this place like the back of his hand. It wasn't long before he found himself in the large room where Church had recently killed the tiger. He stopped as he spotted Pyramid Head gathering up the dead monster.

They both stopped for a moment and stood in silence. "I have a task to do, care to join?" The man waited for a reply as the monster seemed to think it over. Pyramid Head hefted the tiger and gave out a low growl. "I understand, Its orders come first above all else." There was another growl and the man shook his head as he put his knife away. "I will have no trouble with my task." He drew the katana sheathed on his back. "None can stand before me." Pyramid Head rumbled once more and the man nodded. "Very well then, my friend. If possible I will leave one for you."

The man then turned and made his way out of the room. Rather than the door leading out into the otherworld church, as it should have, it opened up into the back hallways of a building. The man moved down the hallway, glancing at the pictures of saints on the wall. He paused for only a moment as he stared at the picture of saint Alessa. "They have no understanding." He reached up and roughly tore the picture down from the wall. It hit the floor and the glass over the picture shattered.

The man continued on his way, finding the door that he was looking for. He didn't bother to knock, no reason to give a warning. He opened the door carefully as not to make too much noise. He moved inside and shut it behind him, locking it.

"I knew that a demon would come for me." The priestess didn't get up from her chair. "I saw the other one of out there." She motioned toward the main section of the church. Her eyes fell to the sword in his hands. "Not quite the weapon I expected, though, of a demon. It more suits a warrior then one such as you."

"You best hold your tongue, sinner." The man gripped the katana tighter. "You have committed a sin against god. A sin which can only be punished by death."

"I have committed no sin against god. I shall bring god to this world. The mother shall give birth to god and all who believe will come to paradise." The woman's eyes were cold as she spoke. "Lay down your weapon and share in god's love. God can cleanse you of all your sins."

"God has no love, only indifference. Though for you, god has hatred." The man took several steps toward her. He knew that she would not fight him. "You honestly believe that god will protect you. It is almost sad."

"God will defend me from your blade. Of this I am sure." The woman didn't even flinch as the man raised the sword up to strike. She even tilted her head back to expose her neck more.

"God does not absolve our sins, only gives us chances to make up for that which we have done." The man swung and the blade cut cleanly through her neck. Blood flowed down the front of her dress pooling in her lap. "We all have our own sins. As for my own, I am making up for them right now." He stood staring at her body for a few minutes. "I have forgotten how it is to be so innocent of the way that things really are." He switched to his knife and knelt down before the woman, getting to work. About ten minutes later he turned and moved out of the room, wiping blood from his hands.

He made his way up a set of steps up to the rafters above the main section of the church. He stayed back far enough so that she wouldn't be seen by the gathered crowd below. He watched as the girl disappeared into the back halls and his eyes fell on Harry. "You must be the demon she spoke of. Oh, how little they understand. They have no idea what people like you and I are." He smiled as he heard the muffled scream of the teenager as she found the body. "Ah, to know my work is appreciated."

Once the girl had reappeared and the other woman had gone to check on what she had seen, the man noticed the struggling redhead. He gripped his blade tighter. "They continue to sin against god." He watched as the other woman reappeared and ordered them to take Harry to the main alter. He could only watch as they dragged him. His mind screamed to take action but his feet did not move. It was Its will that he not interfere, though he did not understand why. The woman's prayer was nothing but a screech in his ear which caused him to slap his hands over his ears in pain.

He felt the stab of the blade into his stomach and as she dragged it across the abdomen he fell to his knees. He could taste copper in his mouth and feel the blood running down his sides. The man looked down and saw that there was no wound on him though it felt so very real. His muscles sang in pain as he swayed. The other man's words echoed through the church and the man wanted to scream out, but something kept the sound from escaping him.

He gasped for air as it felt like the life was draining from him. He knew that he wasn't, it just felt that way. He lay down on the floor, clutching his stomach, unable to move.

A figure came up and sat down beside him, moving his head into her lap. She ran her hand through his hair and with each stroke the pain was stripped away from his body. He wasn't sure how long he lay there before she finally spoke. "It's all right, Daddy. Everything's going to be fine." She leaned down so that he could hear her whisper. "You must get up. You must take action and stop them from killing Her, and calling me forward."

It sat back up and the man moved off of her lap and struggled to stand up. He stood up and looked down at Heather, who stared back up at him. "As long as it is your will, it will be my pleasure." He put away his knife and drew out his katana.

It stood up and wrapped Its arms around his waist, resting Its head against his chest. "Calm yourself, Daddy. You will destroy them in time. We need all the players present and they aren't here yet."

He looked down on the scene and took a deep breath. "As you wish. I will be patient."

"You won't have to wait long, Daddy. That you can be sure." It smiled as the main doors were thrown open and Grif and Simmons ran into the church. A door opened at the head of the church and Alessa moved into the church with Alex leaning against her. "And now the stage is set."

"Please, someone has to help him! I don't know what happened, but he needs help!" Alessa knelt down as Alex's legs gave out from under him and she was left holding his full weight. She wrapped her arms around him and was surprised at how cold he felt.

"The mother has arrived." The woman spread her arms wide and laughed happily as she stared at Alessa, who still clung to her friend.

It released the man and he took a step forward. "Be calm, you will know when it is the right time to strike. You will ensure that She is protected, Leonard."

Leonard paused for a moment before he walked forward to go where he knew he needed to be.

~end chapter 12~


	13. Chapter 13

Silent Gulch Retribution Chapter 13

Alessa and Alex stood, staring at the monster in the middle of the road. The monster stood before them scraping its blades together but taking no other actions.

"What is it doing?" Alex tried to be as quiet as he could, convinced that the monster couldn't see through the bag on its head.

"It seems to be just standing there." Alessa relaxed a bit, not bothering to try to be quiet. "Why the hell are you whispering?"

"Uh, I don't know." Alex frowned as he realized he was still whispering. He cleared his throat and spoke normally. "So what should we do? Try to kill it?"

Alessa raised an eyebrow at him. "First of all, you couldn't kill a fly. Second, it's not really a threat. More of an annoyance with all that scraping." She looked back toward the monster. "I mean, it's just standing there."

"Okay, let me revise that." Alex frowned at her. "Why don't you kill it? It is in the way." He pointed past the monster to the faint outline of the church ahead.

"With what? We don't have any weapons." Alessa held up the book she was carrying. "I'm not going to kill it with this."

"Well, then what do we do? We need to get past it and it doesn't look friendly enough to let us pass." Alex pointed toward the monster.

Alessa looked back to the monster and her eyes grew wide. She slammed her palm against Alex's chest, sending him flying back. She jumped back just in time to avoid the monster as it passed between the two teens.

* * *

Sister groaned, bored out of her mind. She was still following Caboose, who seemed so confident. "Caboose, I really don't think we are going the right way."

"I know where I am going. This is the way to Church, I know it." Caboose smiled back at her, not paying attention to what was ahead of him. His foot suddenly kicked something metal and he cried out in pain.

"Caboose, are you all right?" Sister moved to his side, looking at what was ahead of them. "How did you not see that?" She looked over the large object before them.

"I kicked it because I was looking at you." Caboose sat down on the ground and grabbed the injured foot.

Sister moved forward and brushed the dust and leaves off of part of the object. She frowned at the weatherworn scorpion marking. She tapped on the metal. The headlight to Sister's left flickered on and the engine sputtered to life. "Hey Caboose, I think this is a tank."

Caboose right away perked up. "Oh, Sheila, is that you?" Caboose scrambled to his feet and smiled at the broken down tank.

Sister frowned at him. "Caboose, just because it's a tank doesn't mean it's Sheila."

"Private Caboose, is that you?" a quiet female voice filtered through the air. "Caboose, it has been so long."

"Sheila, it is you." Caboose jumped up and down a bit.

"Sheila? How did you get here?" Sister looked at the tank, unsure of exactly where to look. She wasn't sure where the face was on a tank.

"It left me here when It no longer needed me. I stayed online for several years, then shut down to conserve power." Sheila's voice faded in and out as she spoke. "I thought you left, that was the deal they made."

"Well, we did leave that place, but the fog came to the base we were staying at and now we are here again." Caboose smiled at the tank. "Did you miss me, Sheila?"

"Yes, Caboose, I did miss you. It has been very lonely here." The cannon of the tank lowered in what was the vehicle's show of sorrow.

"Wait, did you say several years? And what is this about a deal that someone made? What does it all have to do with us?" Sister furrowed her brow.

"Yes, I had been wandering around for several years before I settled here and shut down." The tank turned her cannon to Sister. "I mean the deal that Church and god made. Don't you know about the deal?"

"We don't know anything about any deal." Sister turned to look at Caboose. "Did Church tell you anything about a deal?"

"Church doesn't like deals; he says there is always fine print." Caboose smiled happily. "Why does a deal matter?"

"Well, if Church doesn't like deals then why would he make a deal?" Sister looked down at the ground. "Also, the Church that we saw said that it had been just yesterday that we had all been at Silent Hill. Sheila says that she ran for several years. Why would there be a difference?"

"I don't know, but does that mean that Church is alive?" Caboose clasped his hands together, hugging an invisible teddy bear.

"I don't know what it means, Caboose." Sister turned back to the tank. "Sheila, what can you tell me of this deal?"

"I don't really know much about it. All I know is that Church made a deal with god for something. No one really told me much about it," Sheila answered.

"Sheila, is there anything at all that you can tell us in order to help us get out of here?" Sister asked.

Sheila turned her turret to point off in a direction. "That is which way you should go. It calls to us. It calls us in that direction."

"Thanks, Sheila. I wish that you could come with us, but we have to find a way out of here." Sister took Caboose's hand.

Caboose followed Sister, waving back at Sheila. "Bye for now, Sheila. We'll be back for you after we find Church."

* * *

Donut peeked into several of the classrooms. "I think that these are science rooms." He brushed the dust away from the door's window.

"What makes you think that they are science rooms?" Sarge looked over a bulletin board. What should have been covered with announcements for the students was instead covered with crudely written religious propaganda and drawings done by children.

Donut squinted, looking around the room as best he could with the small window. "Well, there are lab tables all over the place. Oh, and there are locked cabinets. That's where they usually keep the chemicals."

"Elementary schools don't have science labs, Donut." Sarge frowned at a picture of a blue church. It was splattered with a liquid and Sarge wiped some of it off the paper. He sniffed it and frowned. It smelled like motor oil but there was no source for the splatter across the wall.

"How do you know that it's an elementary school?" Donut turned to look at the Sergeant. "This room makes it seem like it's a high school."

"Yes, but the sign out front said that it was an elementary school." Sarge moved over to the younger soldier. "Hey, are those robots?" Sarge turned the knob and opened the door.

"Sarge, maybe you shouldn't do that." Donut bit his nails as the door swung in. "What if there are monsters in there? We don't have any way to defend ourselves."

"Oh, don't be a pansy, Donut. If there's anything in there we'll give it a proper strangling." Sarge sauntered into the room and toward a group of five robot skeletons that stood at the back. "Crude design, but then again, not everyone is as skilled at robots as me."

"Sarge, I still don't think this is a good idea." Donut stood beside the other man looking at the robots. "You know, they look a little familiar."

Sarge turned to glare at the younger man. "Don't be ridiculous, they don't look like anything that we've ever seen."

Donut shrieked like a woman who had just found a snake, spider, and mouse in her bed all at once. He pointed at the robots. Sarge turned to see that they were now moving. Their arms jerked about and one of them raised its head to look at the pair. "Ven y únete a nosotros en el padre oscuro." A metal hand reached out for Sarge and he took a step back.

"What in the name of Larry Craig is going on?" Sarge slapped the hand away from him and backed up a few more feet. "That sounds like Lopez."

The robot took a shaky step toward them. "Ven a seruno con dios." The rest of the robots started to move forward, grabbing for the soldiers.

"That definitely sounds like Lopez." Donut looked over the robots. "Sarge, I think that we should run for it. I don't think you can strangle a robot."

"For once you're right Donut, you can't strangle a robot. They don't have a windpipe." Sarge looked around for anything to use. He grabbed a beaker and threw it at the robots. It smashed against one of their metal chests harmlessly. "Well, so much for that."

"¿Porqué se ejecutadesde el amor de dios?" The lead robot cocked its head to the side almost at a ninety degree angle.

"Run for it!" Sarge turned and ran out of the room with Donut on his heels. The robots weren't so fast to move, bumping into each other as they tried to move around the tables.

Three of the doors in the hallways slammed open, and robots stumbled out of them, grabbing at the soldiers as they ran past. "Get to the gym!" The two ran for the place they had used for safety ten years ago.

* * *

Grif stopped and Simmons managed not to run into him. "What is it, Dex?" He frowned at the back of his partner.

Grif looked around at the area around them and frowned. "Shouldn't we have reached Tex's house by now? I don't see anything at all."

Simmons looked around as well and saw nothing but fog. "Well, who knows with this damn town? There might not even be a Tex's house anymore." Simmons looked back at Grif. "How are your hands?"

Grif raised his hands to look at the bloody cloth that was wrapped around them. "I think the bleeding has slowed." He flexed his hands and winced. "They still hurt, though."

"That was a really stupid thing you did, you know that?" Simmons frowned and glanced at Grif's hands. "You shouldn't put yourself in danger like that."

"Oh, my god, Sarge is right. You are such a fairy." Grif chuckled at the other man. "You are so the woman of this relationship. You cook, sew, and you don't have balls."

"Hey, it takes two to be in a relationship. That means that you are a fairy as well." Simmons crossed his arms. "I don't see why I even tried to care."

"I'm the man of the relationship." Grif smirked triumphantly. "You care because you love me, Dickey."

Simmons was shocked for a moment. It quickly turned to pissed-off. "Don't say that word, we're in public."

"We're in the middle of a deserted street in what seems to be Silent Hill. That isn't really public." Grif threw his arms out to the side. "Hell, we could have sex in the middle of the street and it still wouldn't make it public." Grif paused, tapping a finger against his cheek. "You know, on second thought—."

"Get that thought out of your head right now, Dexter." Simmons took a step toward the orange soldier. "I never want you to think that thought again."

"The more you tell me not to, the more I'm going to think about it." He smirked and took a step toward Simmons. The maroon soldier blushed crimson. Grif smirked more. "Someone is embarrassed. You are way too easy, in more than one way."

"Would you cut it out, Dex? I am not easy." Simmons didn't back away but looked away. "Would you just stop? I'm not comfortable with being like that in public."

"Once again, it is not public if we are the only two people." Grif took a deep breath and looked around. "Fine, if you feel that uncomfortable, I'll stop."

Simmons smiled a little bit. "Thanks, Dex." He finally looked back up at the other man. "So, then what do we do from here?"

Grif was about to answer when he heard a low growl. He knew he was hungry but it was like nothing that his stomach had made. He turned to look in the direction it seemed to be coming from. "I think I have a suggestion."

"What would that be?" Simmons cocked his head to one side. "You're just full of plans and surprises today, aren't you."

"I suggest we run from that." Grif pointed behind them. Simmons turned and froze.

Behind them stood a five-foot-tall dog. It didn't seem to be any particular breed, with rich maroon fur. The odd part of it was that one of its legs and one of its eyes had been replaced by robotic parts. The dog took a step forward and the robotic claws dug into the pavement. It slowly opened its mouth revealing several series of razor sharp teeth. It barked loudly.

"Run!" Grif grabbed Simmons's hand and ran for it down the street. He spotted a building nearby and ran up the stairs, nearly dragging Simmons behind him. He threw open the doors of the church and raced inside.

* * *

Tucker slowed down a bit to catch his breath. He looked over his shoulder and didn't see anything. "I think we lost it."

"Honk, honk." Junior once more jumped out of Tucker's arms. "Blarg."

"You really were no help back there." Tucker frowned down at the alien. Junior simply tilted his head to one side. "Oh, I can't stay mad at you." He took a deep breath and looked around. "Well, now where to?"

"Honk blarg." Junior turned and moved off in a direction.

"Where are you going?" Tucker moved after the small alien. "Damn, I wish you spoke English. That would make this way easier."

Tucker followed him down the street and stopped when the alien did. Junior pointed forward and Tucker stared at the creature in their path. "Why is there a rooster here?"

The rooster stood up, stretching its wings. The teal feathers were dulled in the fog but its wide seven-foot wingspan was very visible. The bird spotted Tucker and threw its head back. "Buck, cluck, buck, bawk."

"Oh, this cannot be good." Tucker started looking around for a weapon.

* * *

Alessa managed to stay on her feet, but Alex fell to the ground. "Damn, what the hell is going on?" Alex scrambled to his feet, looking toward the monster.

"I don't know, it just suddenly charged at us." Alessa turned her full attention to the monster that was skidding to a halt. "More importantly, we can't just dodge it. We have to find a way to stop it."

"Maybe we can get it to ram something." Alex tensed as the monster turned back toward him.

"For once you had a good idea." Alessa glanced over at the male teen and frowned. "Are you all right?"

Alex gripped his stomach and fell to one knee. "No, I'm not all right." He sucked in a deep breath trying to fill his lungs. "It feels like I was just stabbed."

The monster let out a scream and started to thrash about, scraping its blades together. It charged forward and Alessa panicked. She raced over and tackled Alex out of the way as the monster charged past where he had been a moment before.

Alex curled in on himself, moaning. "It feels like I'm dying." He tried to sit up but swayed and leaned against Alessa.

"You're going to die if you don't move." Alessa tugged on his arm, trying to get him to stand up.

Alex shook his head and grabbed her sleeve. "I can't, I can't move." He coughed and leaned his head against her arm. "It hurts so much, Heather."

Alessa froze. "What did you call me?" She looked up, remembering the threat. She spotted the monster, dead in the middle of the road.

Pyramid Head stood over it swaying. It groaned and shook its head. Its hand clenched and unclenched and it gripped its blade tighter. Pyramid Head threw his head back and roared out in what seemed like pain.

"Alex, we have to go!" Alessa threw Alex's arm around his shoulder and tried to help him stand. "We can't stay here." Alex had trouble standing but they managed to start moving forward.

"We have to get to the church." Alex grabbed part of Alessa's shirt with the hand not around her shoulder. He clenched the fabric in his fist.

"We're going to the church. I don't know if it will be enough. Unless that thing is some demon and there's some god out there to protect us I don't think it will help." Alessa struggled to get him toward the church.

"We have to get there. It's where we need to be." Alex leaned his head against her shoulder. His eyes started to close and his feet dragged a bit.

"Stay with me, Alex, just stay awake. You are way too heavy for me to carry. If you fall asleep I'm going to leave you behind for that pyramid guy."

"Don't let him rape me." Alex shook his head a bit to try to get himself to wake up. He struggled up the steps with her. Alessa pushed open the doors and they entered the church. She didn't even notice that they were at the head of the church.

* * *

Tex looked over as the door opened and Grif and Simmons ran in. She frowned, unsure of why they were there. She turned toward the main altar as a door opened there. She was struck by the sight of Alessa helping Alex inside. Her heart nearly stopped as she realized the danger her daughter had just walked into.

"Please, someone has to help him. I don't know what happened, but he needs help!" Alessa knelt down as Alex's legs gave out under him and she was left holding his full weight. She wrapped her arms around him.

"The mother has arrived." The woman spread her arms wide and laughed happily as she stared at Alessa, who still clung to her friend.

"Alex?" Grif stood up, his fear of the dog following them lost. He ran forward but stopped as people moved into the main aisle and in his way. "Get the hell out of the way, that's my son!"

The woman moved up the steps and toward Alessa and Alex. "Oh, we have waited for you, mother of god." She frowned as she looked over at Alex. "Why, though, are you with this demon? He is not the father of god." She frowned and turned to her flock. "We have another demon to exorcise."

"Get away from our son!" Simmons joined Grif at the back of the crowd.

"I don't like the sound of the word exorcise." Grif said glaring at the crowd. "Now get out of the way."

"Exorcise means they are going to kill him." Tex tried to pull at the ropes and get them loose. "Alessa, run now, just run."

"Mom?"Alessa looked at her mother on the floor. "Why is she tied up? What are you doing?" Alessa stood up and looked around at the people. She finally spotted the body of Harry and covered her mouth. "What have you done?"

"We have set it all up mother. Soon god shall be born." The woman stretched her arms toward the sky. "Now is the beginning."

~End Chapter 13~


	14. Chapter 14

Retribution Chapter 14

Tucker dove out of the way as the rooster's talons struck out at him. The only thing resembling a weapon that he had been able to find was a rock, and that wasn't very useful. He couldn't seem to get close enough to the bird to even hit it. Junior had moved over to the side of the street and stood there, the monster completely ignoring him. "Damn, I really wish I had my pipe."

Something slid across the street and Tucker recognized it right away. It was a lead pipe, almost exactly the same as the one he had used ten years ago. He didn't stop to wonder where it had come from or who had pushed it toward him. He ran for it and grabbed the weapon, turning to face the rooster.

The bird charged again and this time struck out with its beak. Tucker moved to the side and swung his pipe, smacking the monster in the side of the head. It stumbled back a bit, but it didn't look like the hit had done much. "Well, fuckberries." Tucker turned and ran as the bird crowed in anger.

"You got any ideas of how to kill this thing?" Tucker looked over at Junior, hoping for an answer.

"Honk, blarg, blarg, blarg, honk." Junior made exaggerated gestures at the rooster and mimed something that Tucker didn't understand.

"Oh, I forgot how useful you are in battle." Even in the heat of a fight Tucker found the time to be sarcastic. Tucker was distracted and the bird took a chance to attack. Its beak hit Tucker's left arm, cutting through the side of his upper arm and knocking him down. The rooster moved to strike down with its talons and Tucker rolled out of the way.

"Not cool to attack someone while they are talking to someone." Tucker scrambled to his feet and the rooster struck again, this time its talons cutting through Tucker's side. "Ah, you cock, literally." He rolled over so that he was lying on his back.

The rooster moved over and stepped on Tucker's chest to hold him down. It raised its head, ready to deliver a killing blow. Something large slammed into the rooster's side and sent it flying from Tucker. The teal soldier looked up and stared at the monstrous form of Junior. He recognized it right away as the same one that had kicked him into a hole back in Silent Hill. There was a moment of panic as he feared it would attack him. He calmed when the monster alien moved between him and the rooster that was still trying to recover from the hit.

Tucker moved to his feet, wincing and falling to one knee as pain shot through his side. "Junior?"

The monster alien looked back at him. "Honk blarg." It then turned back to the rooster and flexed its long fingers. The rooster turned to face the alien. They both charged forward and met halfway. They struggled with each other, fighting to get control. Tucker watched them, absorbed by the action. He didn't even see the foot coming. It struck him in the head and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

Sister moved up to the sidewalk, glad to be on pavement and away from the cemetery. She wasn't exactly sure where they were going, but it was better than being surrounded by dead bodies, even if they were buried. She glanced over at Caboose, who was walking straight down the middle of the road, directly toward where Sheila had pointed. At one point he'd tried to go through a building rather than around it. Sister had to explain to him that it was still on the same path and that he couldn't walk through solid objects.

She felt a bit bad for the blue soldier. He really did believe that Church was still alive, and what Sheila had said didn't really help. It seemed like it had only doubled Caboose's desire to find the cobalt soldier. She moved over across the road and walked beside Caboose. "So where do you think that we are going to end up?"

"We are going where Church is. I know that we are." Caboose was confident in his words and wore a large, goofy grin. He had a spring to his step that seemed even more out of place as he walked down the broken-up street in the fog.

"I don't know how you can be so cheerful. I mean, this place is creepy." Sister glanced over at a store window that was cracked all the way through but somehow still perfectly in place.

"I'm happy because I know that we will find Church. Church always knows what to do, so he will make everything all right." Caboose glanced over at the yellow solider. "Why aren't you happy? We are going to find Church."

"Caboose, I don't think that Church is what Sheila was pointing us toward. She said something was calling her toward it. Don't you remember? She was on the side of the monsters last time." Sister hated to bring up the fact that the tank was basically a traitor to them.

"She was not on the monster's side. She only attacked the Reds. The Reds are the enemies of Blue team, so she was doing what she was supposed to do." Sister stared at Caboose, a bit surprised that the blue soldier had used logic.

"But when we were in the train, she was there as well. She was there with O'Malley, and Junior," Sister pointed out.

"But she didn't attack us. She just stood there with them. She didn't do anything to hurt us." Caboose crossed his arms. "You're just jealous because she's so nice."

"I am not jealous of a tank." Sister frowned at him. "She's a tank, and built by the lowest bidder."

"You take that back." Caboose took a step away from her and glared at the yellow soldier.

Sister softened a bit. "I'm sorry Caboose, I shouldn't have said that. I guess I am a bit jealous. I mean, you care so much about her, and you aren't afraid to show it. I wish Tucker could be more like you."

"Tucker can't be like me, he's not the same color," Caboose stated.

"Caboose, I didn't know you were a racist." Sister stared wide-eyed at the blue soldier.

Caboose looked at her completely confused. "I did not know that teal was a race. I thought it was a color."

Sister relaxed a bit. "Sorry, Caboose, I thought you were talking about something else. I didn't mean he had to wear the same color as you, I mean I wish he would drop the whole lady's man act and be more open."

Sister came to a halt as she saw the scene before them. Caboose stopped beside her and stared at it as well. "Tucker!" Sister ran forward and knelt down beside the unconscious soldier. She looked over at Junior who was standing beside him. "What happened?"

"Honk honk." Junior knelt down beside Tucker.

"Um…what does that mean?" Sister looked back at Caboose. "What did the dog say?"

"That's not a dog, that's Tucker's kid. I thought he was a monster." Caboose stood behind Sister. "What happened to Tucker?"

"I don't know, Caboose. He's been knocked out." Sister placed a hand on Tucker's chest. "How are we going to get him to wake up?"

"I don't know." Caboose looked over at the dead rooster. "Wow, what is that thing?"

Sister glanced over at the dead bird. "Wow, that's a big cock."

"Bow chicka bow wow." Tucker sat up quickly. He looked around and spotted his teammates. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"I don't know, what _is_ up? What happened here?" Sister motioned toward the large rooster.

"Wow, damn, you are useful." Tucker smiled proudly at Junior. He then turned to Sister. "My kid kicked some ass. Wait, how did you get here?"

"We walked," Caboose said.

"I don't mean what transportation you used. I mean how did you find me?" Tucker frowned at the blue soldier. He stood up, wincing as his hand moved to his side.

"Sheila pointed us in this direction. What happened to your side?" Sister placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"Sheila? Why the hell would you trust Sheila? She's with the enemy." Tucker shrugged off her hand and took a step away from her.

"I don't trust her, Caboose does." Sister crossed her arms and turned away from Tucker.

"Why would you let Caboose lead the way?" Tucker frowned at her. "That's like letting blind man lead you toward a cliff."

"How am I supposed to keep him from going in a direction? Logic doesn't work with him and I don't have the physical strength to make him go another way." Sister glared at him.

"Why not tell him that Church is in a different direction. He'd go anywhere if he thinks that is where Church is," Tucker suggested.

"He thinks that Sheila was pointing us to Church." Sister frowned and looked around. She spotted Caboose and Junior walking off. "Caboose, where are you going?" Sister ran to try to catch up with the idiotic soldier.

"Hey, wait for me." Tucker ran after them.

* * *

Donut skidded to a halt and looked down the hallway. "Which way is the gym?"

"Just choose a way and run." Sarge ran past him turning to the left. Donut took off running after him. Sarge forced himself to come to a stop as he noticed something at the end of the hallway.

"Why is there a lightish red horse in a school?" Donut stared at the six-foot-tall horse in the hallway. Its fur was dirty, but it was still very obviously pink. "That thing really needs a bath."

The horse shook its head, flinging its matted mane about as it stomped red hooves against the tile floor. It set its blazing red eyes on the two soldiers and snorted.

"Donut, I think we should run the other way."

"You know what Sarge? I agree." At the same time the two soldiers turned and ran for it. They right away ran into a line of robots that had slowly gathered behind them. The machines were knocked over by the collision, causing the robots and soldiers to fall to the ground. Sarge and Donut scrambled to their feet and took off down the hallway. The horse neighed and they could hear the sound of hooves behind them, growing closer.

Donut moved into a classroom and pulled Sarge with him. The horse ran past, unable to stop its charge. "Sarge, we can't just run, that thing is too fast. We need to come up with a plan."

"You're right, Donut. It's too bad that we don't have Grif here to use as bait, or as a weapon to hit it with, or as something to offer it up to eat for it to spare our lives." Sarge looked around the room. "Oh well, we'll have to come up with something else. Any ideas, Little Orphan Annie?"

"All right, I take offense at that one. I am not a redhead." Donut looked around the room. "We just have to find something that we can use as a weapon." He moved to the desks and started to search through them.

* * *

"Should we really be letting them lead?" Tucker walked beside Sister as they followed behind Caboose and Junior. "I mean, neither one of them is that smart."

"I don't know; I mean, I like the way that Caboose looks at things. Maybe this will lead us to Church." Sister smiled as she watched the blue soldier, who was telling a story to Junior.

"Did you hit your head or something? Church is dead, again, and Caboose is an idiot. Why the hell would we follow him?" Tucker raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know. I like his optimism. It seems like something that would be good in this world. Everything here's so bleak, and he's so cheerful. I wish I could be that way while in a situation like this." Sister tilted her head to the side, trying to figure out what story Caboose was telling the alien. The idiot soldier was waving his hands about wildly.

"You're not cheerful because you have a higher IQ then Caboose. Hell, the plants here have higher IQs then Caboose. Even they are scared of this stuff." Tucker shook his head. "Ignorance is bliss, but being too ignorant will get you eaten alive by a giant rooster.

"You seem rather calm considering the situation," Sister pointed out.

"Yeah, well, that's because I know that if shit gets bad my kid can turn into a giant monster and kill things." Tucker lifted the pipe so Sister could see it. "Not to mention I got this back."

"A pipe? Tucker, this is a place filled with monsters, not your bedroom on a Saturday night." Sister examined the pipe. "Though this thing wouldn't be thick enough for a Saturday night."

"I thought we weren't going to discuss that kind of stuff in public. I also don't want to expose my kid to that kind of stuff." Tucker glanced ahead at Junior. "Besides, this isn't for that. I got through this place last time with just a pipe."

"Yeah, but last time Church killed all the big bad monsters. This time Church isn't around." Sister shivered a bit. "Is it me or is it getting colder?"

"Don't worry, baby. I'll keep you warm." Tucker moved a bit closer to the yellow soldier. "And don't worry about the monsters. I killed one with this thing once, I'm sure I can do it again."

Sister also moved closer to Tucker. "You sure are skilled with your pipe."

"Bow chicka bow wow." Tucker threw an arm around Sister's shoulders. "You give me the best set-ups."

"Hey, why is there a cow in the road?" Caboose had stopped and was pointing ahead. A sapphire cow stood in the road, smacking its head against a mail box. "I do not think that is how you mail a letter. You have to hit the top."

"I don't think it's trying to mail a letter." Tucker watched the ox for a moment. "It kind of looks like it's trying to beat itself to death to save us the trouble of killing it."

"Well, it is blue, so it must be good. We should see if it knows where Church is." Caboose started to walk toward the ox.

"Caboose, stop. Just because it's blue doesn't mean it's good. Church is blue and he's an asshole." Tucker moved forward pulling the blue soldier back. "You can't just walk up to a strange cow and say hello to it. It wouldn't even understand you."

"I feel like this is one of those moments where Church would tell you to let him go, just to see what happens." Sister looked down at Junior. "Do you speak that thing's language?"

"Honk blarg," Junior answered.

"Junior speaks in honks and blargs. That thing probably only speaks moo." Tucker let go of Caboose's arm. "You know what, that is what Church would do. Go ahead, Caboose, Church would want to you try to talk to that thing."

"Yay, I'm going to go talk to the cow." Caboose turned and walked toward the ox. "Hello there, fellow blue. I am Caboose." He raised his hand and waved.

The ox turned and looked at Caboose. It studied him for a moment then tossed its head around. As it turned its attention to them it was obvious that it was not a normal ox, not even close. Glowing red eyes, smaller spikes covering its horns, and dirty matted fur. It was obviously another creature of Silent Hill. The monster turned and started to run straight at Caboose. The idiot soldier didn't move out of the way. The ox continued to charge and passed Caboose, a full miss. Instead it was heading toward Sister and Tucker.

Tucker tackled Sister to the side and out of the way of the ox. It ran past them and ran into a truck that was parked on the side of the road. Tucker got to his feet and pulled Sister up with him. "We got to get moving." He pulled Sister along with him as he moved over to Junior. The alien jumped up into his arms and he ran past Caboose. "Come on Caboose, we're going to go find Church."

"But what about the nice cow?" Caboose looked over his shoulder at the ox that was still trying to regain its senses.

"Forget the cow, just follow me." Tucker didn't look back to see if Caboose was following. He couldn't risk them staying there any longer and giving the ox another chance to attack.

~End chapter 14


	15. Chapter 15

Retribution Chapter 15

Church fell to the floor, gripping his stomach. He leaned against the wall, ignoring the stench that filled his nostrils. "What the fuck?" He slid down to sit on the ground. He sucked in air, but it didn't make it any better.

A roar echoed through the hallway and Church felt a pang of fear run through him. He scrambled to his feet, almost falling back down as pain shot from his stomach to the rest of his body. A pair of nurses and a monster he'd never seen appeared. The new monster muscled forward. It swung its large meaty club arms around, knocking the nurses to the side.

The creature grew closer and closer, and Church didn't want to have anything to do with it. He turned and ran for it, ignoring the pain that spiked through him with each and every step.

* * *

Alessa clung to Alex as a pair of men tried to pry him from her. "Release him, mother. We must be rid of this demon."

Alessa kicked at the closest man trying to pull her away. "He's not a demon, he's my friend!" Something metal hit her head and her grip loosened. Alex slipped from her grasp. "No! Let him go, give him back." She struggled as three men grabbed her to hold her still.

"Remove the cleansed beast." The woman motioned to Harry's body and a pair of people removed his body from the altar. She moved over and picked up a cloth, gently cleaning the blood from her knife. "Place him on his final resting place."

Alessa tried to scratch and bite at the people holding her down. "You can't do this! It's murder!"

The group of people carried Alex over to the altar and set him down on his back, tying him down as they had to Harry. Alex groaned in pain and weakly tried to struggle against the ropes that bound his wrists. He looked over, toward Alessa, eyes pleading for help.

The woman moved over to Alex's side. She moved the knife, cutting a line up his shirt. "Here before us lies a sinner. One who killed his own family in cold blood."

Alex stopped struggling and stared up at the woman. "Cold blood? It was an accident. You want to know cold blood, that's all the children before him that died at the hands of your bat-shit crazy club." He pulled at the restraints, seemingly back to his panicked state.

"You cannot save yourself with words now, demon. The gods do not care if it was an accident." The woman raised up the knife as if ready to strike.

"What in hell's name are you talking about? I didn't say anything, bitch." Alex frowned at her, trying to suck in his chest to get it further away from the knife. It didn't really work, only sending a shot of pain through his chest.

The woman paused, a bit confused and angered by the words. "Do not lie to us, demon. You tried to defend yourself and slander our group in the same breath." The woman raised the knife once more.

* * *

Joshua pulled at Leonard's pant leg, trying to pull him toward the stairs. "You have to do something. You have to save him, big brother."

Leonard pushed him away and shook his head. "It is not yet time. I will know when I am needed." He stared at the scene below. His gaze only made quick sweeps over Alex, more focused on Her. He knew he should take action but an invisible force held him in place.

He tried to distract himself by checking over his weapons. Knife, axe, katana, pistol, shotgun, lead pipe, and ceremonial dagger. He paused as he felt a different handle in his hands. He pulled the weapon out and frowned as he found himself staring at a weapon he had never owned before. He'd never even held one.

He paused for a moment thinking over the amusement he could get out of the weapon. Joshua fell silent, staring at the weapon. Oh yes, he would have to use this.

* * *

Grif's fist connected with the back of the head of a man. The man knelt down, clutching his head. "I told you to get out of my way." Several people turned toward him, helping the fallen man up. "Get out of the way!"

Two of the people raced forward and Simmons moved in the way. His robotic arm shot out, knocking one back and sending part of the crowd toppling to the ground. The other grabbed his human arm and Grif hit him upside the head. "Back off, bitch!"

There was an ever so slight opening in the crowd. Grif raced forward, charging through them toward the main altar. He broke through the crowd but was tackled beside Tex, hitting the stone floor hard. His face scraped against the floor and he winced as the men pinned his arm to his back. "Let me up!"

"Why do you try to save this demon? He is a sinner, and he will kill his whole family." The woman placed the knife against Alex's neck. "Perhaps I shall slit your throat, or perhaps I should cut out your tongue and let you drown, like your brother."

Alex grew quiet and once more glared at the woman. "I didn't kill my family. They broke their stupid pact and paid for it."

The woman turned back to him and smiled. "So you are not as ignorant of your crime as you claim to be."

Alex furrowed his brow. "What crime? I have no idea what you are talking about. What the hell is all of this about?" He turned to look at Alessa then back at the woman. "What do you want with her, anyway?"

"I've had enough of your tricks, demon. You know what you did. As for mother, she will give birth to god and god will guide the believers to paradise." The woman moved up to the altar to stand beside him. Her hand reached over, fingers lightly ghosting over Alex's chest to stop over his heart. "But first we must be rid of you, demon."

"First, you are really creepy. Second, why the hell would Heather be having a child? She's shot me down since I met her and I doubt your god has better moves than me. If you're looking for a whore to birth a child then why don't you go find our aunt, she's a total slut and would bang anyone." Alex shook his head. "I think that's just poor choices on your part."

"Alex, what's wrong with you?" Alessa was getting a bit worried. He'd called her Heather again, and he seemed to be having outbursts that he didn't remember.

"What do you mean, what's wrong with me? I think the question is, what's wrong with these people? They're nuts. Then again, we do live in a community of crazies so it shouldn't be a surprise, but she takes the fucking cake." Alex shook his head.

"Enough of this." The woman raised the knife once more. "I'm through with these stupid games."

Just before she could stab down, a door slammed open at the head of the church.

* * *

Church ran through the door, quickly stopping and slamming it shut behind him. The monster had chased him and he'd been lucky to find an exit route. He stopped as he took in the new scene. All eyes were staring at him and it made him nervous. "Hey, there," he said, raising a hand in a sort of wave. "Didn't mean to interrupt your fetish club, or whatever. I was just running from a monster and, well, you know." He looked over at Alessa and then Alex. "Aren't they a bit young to be used in this kind of thing? I mean, they are minors."

"Dad, do something." Alessa pleaded with him. "You have to stop her."

Church looked around then back to Alessa. "Are you talking to me? You must have me confused with someone else. My name's Church, I don't know who you are, or what's going on, but I don't think it's my business."

"What the fuck are you talking about, man?" Grif struggled against the man on his back. "She's your daughter."

"Grif? What the hell are you doing here? I had no idea that you and Simmons were into this kind of thing." Church raised an eyebrow.

"We aren't!" Simmons shouted, still trapped at the back of the group.

"Whatever, I don't have a daughter, I don't know who that kid is," he motioned to Alex, "and I certainly don't see why I should get involved."

"That kid is my son," Grif grumbled as his head was forced flat against the ground.

"Church, just save them, you asshole!" Tex glared at him, trying to sit up, but finding it impossible in her current position.

"Oh, now that's going too far. Let my wife go, you shit-birds." Church moved forward, past the altar and toward Tex.

The woman stepped in the way and struck out. The knife sunk deep into Church's chest. No sound came from him but Alex screamed in pain. There was a howl in the air and the woman stuck three more times before she stepped away from him.

Church took a step toward Tex before falling and rolling down the stairs. He landed a few feet away from Tex.

* * *

Tex stared into Church's blue eyes, watching the light fade from them. He stared back at her and she felt her stomach drop. The eyes that stared back at her were the eyes that she knew so well. There was no uncertainty as there had been before. Blood seeped from the wounds and onto the ground. It didn't pool like it should have, rather twisted and snaked in patterns on the ground.

A metal screeching filled the air. It didn't pause, just a constantly steady sound of metal scraping against wood. A loud rhythmic thud echoed though the church. Something was pounding against the main doors. Alex continued to scream as though he were dying.

The woman moved over and flipped Church onto his back. She glanced toward the door and then back at Church. "What have your brought to our doorstep, demon?" She kicked his limp body.

"Get away from him!" Tex shouted, trying to be threatening from where she lay on the ground. They both turned as wood splintered at the door. They spotted Simmons, trying to push up the hunk of wood that kept the door locked shut.

* * *

It hugged the woman tight to her. "I'm so glad that you want do to this, Mama." It smiled and looked toward the door at the end of the hallway. "I was a bit worried for a while. I need all my others to help me with my current problem."

The woman looked at the door as well, emerald eyes unfocused. "I am more than happy to do this. It is because of me really, under it all, that this is what has happened." She looked toward the teenage girl that kept calling her Mama. "So I'm just to guard? Can I at least talk?"

"You can talk, but don't expect an answer. Dada doesn't talk." It frowned and became very serious. "They will come here soon. I would prefer you do not kill them, but if you must to complete your duty, than please, do so." It turned and started to walk away.

"You aren't going to stay?" The woman ran a hand nervously through her fire-red hair.

It stopped and looked back. "They need me now; I must complete all that it needed to stop them from destroying my plans. Now off to your duty." It turned and walked away.

The woman nodded her head and turned, heading down the hall. She walked through the door and shut it tight behind her. She took a moment to just stare at him, what was his fate. She smiled a bit and took a seat. "It's been a long time, but we're finally together again."

End Chapter 15


	16. Chapter 16

Retribution Chapter 16

Sister slowed down, causing Tucker to slow down with her. "I don't think it's following us anymore." Sister glanced over her shoulder to be sure. She looked around, examining their surroundings. "Where are we?"

Tucker looked around. They had reached a large building that looked rather run-down. "I don't know what this is. It looks like a jail or something. Not that I've ever seen a jail, or been arrested for any sexual activities."

"I think you're right. Though I really don't want to know why you know a jail by sight." Sister frowned, then shrugged, marching forward. She pulled on the doors and they budged a little.

"What are you doing?" Tucker pulled her away from the doors.

Sister turned on him and pushed him away. "I'm trying to get inside, what does it look like? Sheila told us that this is where she was going, then this is our destination. I didn't come this far to turn back."

"Are you insane?" Tucker stared at her with his mouth wide open. "This is a jail, where people who kill other people go. I bet it's crawling with monsters."

Sister took a step back, glancing around. "Well, I don't see a weapon, so I guess that we don't have any luck. Hey, Caboose, come help me open this door. Maybe Church is inside."

"Church, I'm coming!" Caboose ran forward, slamming his shoulder against the door.

"Caboose, it's a pull, not a push." Sister helped the blue soldier to grab the handle and together they pulled. The rusty door opened slowly. The two stopped pulling as soon as they had it open enough to squeeze through.

"You both are still crazy." Tucker watched as the two other Blue soldiers slipped into the jail. "Hey, wait for me. Come on, Junior." Tucker moved forward, slipping through the slight opening with Junior close behind.

The cyan soldier found Caboose at the front desk, pushing a button that caused the room to echo with a dull buzzing noise. "Caboose, there's no staff here. Why do you keep trying to buzz them?" Tucker pulled the blue soldier away from the button.

"Oh, let him be, Tucker. I don't know who we are going to get through this door." Sister pointed to a set of big bulky doors that were meant to keep prisoners in. "Maybe he'll get lucky and someone will come and open it for us." Just as she said the words, a force pushed on the other side of the door, causing it to slowly open.

#

Donut looked through another desk, checking to be sure that they were all empty. "I haven't found anything yet."

"Neither have I. Looks like we are plumb out of luck. We're going to be torn apart by robots, and then stepped on by a pretty pink pony." Sarge sat down in one of the chairs.

"Don't give up hope yet, Sarge. We could still leave through that other door." Donut paused for a moment. "Wait, was that door there before?"

"It's too late, Donut. It's best if we start writing our eulogies now before Grif ends up writing them." Sarge started to wail pitifully. "Oh, no, we're going to die."

"Sarge, seriously, help me with this door." Donut was trying to push the odd door open.

"Donut, stop bothering with that door. I said that we are doomed."

"I think it's moving." The door started to open and Sarge reluctantly stood up, pushing it forward. The door moved slowly but eventually reached a point where the soldiers could slip through. "Hey, I hear voices."

#

"I don't think we should go through it. In horror stories when a door opens on its own it isn't a good thing." Tucker took a step back. He relaxed when Donut slipped through.

"Oh, hey Donut, have you seen this buzzy thing?" Caboose waved to his friend as Donut entered the room. Sarge followed closely behind him.

"What is going on?" Sarge looked around at all the Blues. "Gosh darn it, evil pink horses and now we're surrounded by Blues. I bet you caused all of this."

"You belong in the crazy community. We didn't do any of this." Tucker glared at the two Reds. "What the hell are you two doing in a jail anyway? Wait, how old is Donut?"

"Jail, this isn't a jail. We were in a school." Donut frowned, glancing back at the door. He pulled on the door and Sister assisted him. "That was so not there a moment ago." They stared. On the other side of the doorway was an old and dirty hallway.

"Looks like a jail to me." Tucker smirked at Sarge. "If you went to a school like this, maybe that's why you're crazy."

"I'm not crazy. We were just being chased by a ton of Lopez-like robots and an evil pink pony." Sarge started to walk down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" Tucker frowned as Sister then started to walk down the hallway, followed by Caboose, who was carrying Donut. "Where are you all going?"

"Forward, you always go forward in a horror movie." Sister moved to assist Sarge, who was pushing on the door at the end of the hallway.

"Church, I'm coming for you!" Caboose charged forward and slammed into the door, slamming it open. Donut clung to his friend's back as they crashed through.

"Bow chicka bow wow." Sister swayed her hips as she quoted Tucker.

"That was just so wrong," Tucker muttered as he walked down the hallway after the other soldiers.

They wandered through the jail for fifteen minutes, Caboose breaking down door after door looking for Church. They hadn't found anyone, or any monsters. They were standing, watching Caboose try to push a door open, though it was impossible. There were rocks on the other side of the door so it couldn't open. It was obvious as the metal was bent and the rock was visible through the broken windows. Still, Caboose was determined to get it open.

Junior stood behind all of the soldiers. He watched them, confused as to why they were going that way. The small alien pulled at Tucker's pant leg, but he was pushed away. Junior then went to Sister and poked her leg. The yellow soldier knelt down and stared at him. Junior motioned a different direction. "Honk, honk, blarg, blarg, honk, blarg." The alien turned and ran across the room toward an already open door.

"Hey, where is Junior going?" Sister glanced over at Tucker while indicating the running alien.

"Junior, get back here!" Tucker took off after his kid. He may not have been the best father, but he needed Junior. They didn't have anything else that could fight the monsters. He heard more footsteps behind him and hoped that it was the others following him.

Junior came to a stop at the broken twisted railing of a walkway. All around them the doors of former cells had been torn off and thrown about. Below in the open area, needlers, nurses, ferals, and a number of monsters that the soldiers had never seen before all gathered around a pair of figures.

One of the figures was a woman. Her red hair was stuck to her head and neck with the blood of the monsters. She swung the iron bar, smacking a lurker and sending blood flying from its head. She turned and ran back to the other figure. She smacked a needler away who had been stabbing its arm into the second figure's arm.

As the monsters bit and stabbed at the second figure he didn't make a sound. His grayed hair was dripping with his blood and the blood of the monsters. He was tied to a cross in a crucifix position, unable to defend himself against the monsters.

Tucker stared on in horror as the woman tried to keep the monsters away, but they kept getting though, stabbing and tearing into the man's flesh. There was an odd sound beside him and the great bulk of Junior in monster form dropped down from the walkway. He crushed a number of the monsters under his feet as he reached the ground.

The woman turned and shifted her stance, showing that she was ready to take Junior on. Junior ignored the woman, swinging his arms. His long limbs swept away line after line of monsters, sending them slamming into the wall. He reached out, grabbing a group of needlers, and tossed them. The bodies hit the walls above the soldiers with a sickly smack against the wall, accompanied by the sound of bones cracking. The soldiers stared in horror as Junior tore through the monster.

After a minute, all of the monsters had been turned into either piles of flesh or smears on the wall. Junior took a step toward the two figures and the woman raised her weapon again. Black smoke started to rise up off of the monstrous alien, shrouding him in darkness. After a few seconds, the smoke vanished and the little alien ran forward, past the man, and stood behind the cross, crouched in a guarding position.

"Your kid is weird." Donut looked over to see Tucker walking away. "Where are you going?"

"To get my kid." Tucker walked down the walkway to a set of stairs. They twisted down and after what felt like forever they reached the bottom floor. He walked out into the open area, picking his way between the bodies. He marched toward the woman. "Hey, you."

The woman didn't open her eyes. She stood before the crucified man, arms wrapped around his neck and head resting on his chest.

"Hey, don't ignore me, weirdo." Tucker stopped several feet away from her. "I'm talking to you."

"Church?" Caboose turned around and circles, looking for his best friend.

"What?" The woman glared at the blue soldier.

Tucker was quiet for a moment. "Your name is Church?"

"My last name is." She frowned at him, tightening her grip on the man's neck protectively.

"I hate this place," Tucker muttered.

#

"Stop him before he lets it in!" the woman screamed, pointing at Simmons. The maroon soldier dropped the hunk of wood and the main doors opened up. Rather than a horde of monsters or a big scary demon that they all expected, only one figure entered the church through the doors.

The little girl ran forward and the people parted out of her way, compelled by an unknown force. The child waved a piece of paper around in the air. "Dad, you have to see it! It's the best one I've ever done." She ran forward toward the main altar. She stopped a few feet away from Church. "Dad? What's wrong? Don't you want to see it?" She moved forward slowly, stepping into the blood.

The church fell silent; even Alex stopped screaming. The little girl knelt down beside Church and started to shake him. "Dad? Dad? Wake up!" She shook him, a terrified look crossing her face. Her eyes watered and she slowly started to cry. "Dad, please wake up!" She was nearly shouting at him, trying to force Church to wake up. "Daddy!"

The scratching metal noise started again, this time accompanied by footsteps. A figure appeared on the stairs leading down from the upper balcony to the main altar. Leonard took slow deliberate steps down the stairs, the great blade dragging behind him. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs looking around at the crowd.

"How can this be?" the woman wailed, eyes wide in horror. Leonard looked almost exactly like Church. Only the way he carried himself, the blood on his clothing, and the great blade behind him were different.

#

Alessa stared at Leonard. This one reminded her of the man from her dreams. Strong, confident, no hint of fear. There was something wrong, though. He was cold, uncaring. Something caught her eye, a smaller figure. The young boy ran down the stairs, past Leonard, and over to Alex. He started to tug and pull at the ropes, freeing the male teen. Once Alex was free of the restraints he rolled off of the table, hitting the floor. Alex clutched at his chest where Church had been stabbed, tears running down from his eyes.

Alessa struck out, and her heel found the groin of one of the men who were holding her. His grip loosened and she ran for it. Alessa broke away, running to Alex's side. She sat down beside him and pulled Alex into her arms, trying to comfort him. He clung to her, over and over repeating the word 'dad'.

Joshua hesitated for a moment, taking a step toward them. "I had to help him. I had to help my big brother. I'm sorry, don't be mad at me." He looked terrified, as though he thought Alessa would strike out at him.

Alessa simply stared at him, glancing down at Alex then back up at Joshua. "Thank you." The young boy looked confused. She wasn't mad at him?

#

Leonard glanced over at Alessa and Alex, then down at Church, the little girl, and Tex. "Here before me lay your sins." Leonard lifted up the great blade, and sunk it a foot and a half into the wood of the main altar. "For those that claim to love god, why do you cause her pain?" He took a step away from the blade, hand moving to his belt. He pulled out a lead pipe and looked around at the people. "All sinners must die."

The front doors shut, locking them all in. The woman looked around, panicked. She took a step away from Leonard. "Maybe if you're lucky he'll show up." Leonard paused for a moment shaking his head. "No, none of you are worthy of his work." He took another step forward, swinging the pipe lightly so that it moved up to rest on his shoulder. "Who would like to pay for their sins first?"

The woman turned and moved toward the little girl. She reached out, violently grabbing the girl's arm. "I've had enough of you demons!"

The little girl screamed and suddenly, a hand grabbed the woman's arm. It gripped tightly. The woman screamed as she realized that the hand belonged to Church. The corpse was up and moving, lifeless eyes boring into her. The hand's grip tightened and bones moved under the skin. Church's mouth opened in a smile but his teeth had been replaced by fangs. Church let out a sound somewhere between a roar and a scream. The woman tried to back away, but Church's hand changed—the bones grew longer, rearranged, and became a clawed hand. Skin shifted, changed color, and hardened into hide. Skin on his back ripped and bones protruded forth, shortly covered by muscles, then hide, before more bones grew out of those. Clothing tore as Church's muscles and body became too large for the fabric. Seconds later the bones set into place, and the woman was left staring into Church's eyes, and the face of a dragon.

~End chapter 16


	17. Chapter 17

Retribution Chapter 17

The little girl clapped her hands together and giggled. "Yay, Dad is all right!" She turned to Tex. "Isn't it great, Mother? Now Father can kill all of the sinners!" She clutched the paper she'd been waving around to herself, ignoring the fact that it was now covered in blood. "It will be just like my picture."

She held up the paper so that Tex could see it. Although blood seemed to coat the picture, the image was clear: A black-haired, blue-eyed stick figure standing over a collection of bloody bodies, great blade in hand. Tex frowned at the child, then looked toward the dragon. What did any of this have to do with the dragon? Was the creature ever even Church or had it always just been a monster in disguise? Was this monster going to kill all of them? Tex turned to look toward the altar, at Alessa. What could she do to save her daughter?

The dragon roared and it echoed off the walls. It released its grip on the priestess's arm. "You will suffer for your sins at the hands of the Father." The booming voice of the dragon sounded like thunder as it spoke.

Alex clung to Alessa, his face buried into her shoulder. He froze as he felt a presence stand before them and heard metal hit the ground.

"Get to work. You have a job to do."

Alex recognized the voice. It was the same one from the library, the same one that had spoken only a few seconds ago. It was Leonard. Alex raised his head from Alessa's shoulder. He understood now. He knew what his job was. What Leonard had spoken to him about while they were at the library. He knew what he was, where he had come from.

His hand reached out, gripping the handle of the knife tightly. "I understand." The words were cold as they flowed from his mouth. Alex moved away from Alessa and she stared at him, eyes boring into him. Her mouth moved as though looking for words to say, for questions to ask. "You need to stay here."

"Where are you going?" Alessa reached out, grabbing Alex's arm. She didn't understand what was going on. She glanced at the dragon and then looked back at Alex. "You get involved in this and that dragon will kill you!"

Alex shook his head. "No, it won't. I have a job to do, and it will let me do it. You have to let me go to do it as well. I'll explain everything later."

"So you suddenly know what's going on? I still have no clue." Alessa gripped his arm tighter. "And why the hell were you calling me Heather?"

Alex glanced over his shoulder at Leonard, who was watching the dragon. "You need to trust me, Alessa. You need to trust _us_."

Alessa slowly released his arm, letting him go. "I trust you."

Alex turned, nodding to Leonard. Alex moved past the man and down the stairs, running forward toward Tex and the little girl. A group of people were still hovering around Tex to ensure that she didn't get away. They all watched Alex in surprise as he ran toward them. Alex tackled the closest person and the two of them fell to the floor. A second person appeared to Alex's side and he struck out. The knife cut into the man's arm and he reeled back, clutching it.

The rest of the people backed up, watching Alex carefully. The teenager moved off of the man he had tackled and moved over to Tex. The knife slid over the ropes on her wrists. Alex kept an eye on the still-gathered people until the blade made it all the way through the rope.

Tex gladly moved her hands from behind her back. She looked at Alex, surprise on her face. The little girl giggled and hugged Tex's side. She knelt down and wrapped her arms around the child protectively, watching Alex and the crowd carefully. She didn't understand what was going on, but this child had called her Mother and she felt a need to protect her.

Alex stood at the ready, facing the people as they crept forward. One of the men motioned to the injured man. "What the hell is wrong with you, kid? You just stabbed him."

Alex glared at them, gripping his knife tightly. "I have a job to do, and if you place a hand on Her, I will kill you." His words were flat and serious, sounding as though they had come from the mouth of a seasoned killer.

The people charged forward and Alex was ready. He struck out with the knife, here and there, hitting legs and arms. Most of the people backed up, but one man continued to attack Alex. The man's fist contacted with Alex's face and then them man took a step back, glancing at Tex and the little girl.

Alex turned and charged forward. "I have to protect Her!" He ducked down under the man's fist, his knife stabbing into the attacker's chest. Alex pulled it out and stabbed the man two more times until he fell to the ground. "I wasn't messing around. I will kill you if you try to touch Her!" His words filled the air, punctuated by the roar of the dragon.

Leonard smiled a bit as Alex killed the man. He had nothing to worry about. The teen remembered his duty. He would protect Her.

Leonard turned his attention back to the dragon. The beast pushed the priestess away and turned toward Leonard. He felt the dragon's eyes bore into him as it started to walk toward him. The dragon walked up the stair and to Leonard. It stood before him and Leonard nodded to it. The dragon fell forward, letting its body go limp. As soon as the dragon's hide touched Leonard, its body dissipated into liquid. Leonard stood still as the blood rained down on him.

Alessa watched as the man shook his head, trying to get some of the blood off of him. "Damn, I hate that," he muttered. He looked back at her and she saw it, the caring and concern that she was familiar with. He knelt down and Alessa watched him. "Are you all right?"

Alessa nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm fine." As she looked into his eyes she felt an odd sense of complete calm. She knew that everything was going to be all right. She was in a hellish land and she'd just watched her best friend kill a man, but as she stared into his blue eyes, she knew that everything was all right.

Leonard Church smiled at his daughter. As long as she was all right, he could do anything. "Stay here. I have to go take care of something." He avoided touching her, not wanting to get blood on her. He stood up and turned his full attention back to the priestess. "You're in big trouble, I hope you know that."

The little girl giggled. "Father's going to show you how sinners are punished." She had a wide grin on her face as she said the words. She wiggled in Tex's arms as the Freelancer held her tight.

Tex stared at Leonard in horror. He looked just as he had when he'd stood on the train platform those years ago, right before he'd been killed. As she stared, Leonard reached behind his back, pulling out his katana.

"Aw, I want you to use the big one."

Leonard glanced over his shoulder at the great blade still stuck in the wood. "That thing's a bit heavy. I'm going to leave it to him, or at least save it for the bitch if I do use it. I'd rather not waste such an honor on these pitiful sinners." Leonard shifted his sword so the blade rested lightly on his shoulder. He started to walk down the steps toward the woman. As his foot hit the first stair, sirens filled the air. He paused at the step and stared down at the child. "Please tell me this isn't happening right now." The little girl smiled at him and he sighed.

He lifted his foot to step down the next stair. As his foot rose, the carpet peeled away from where he'd stood. It floated up a few centimeters and dissipated. The decay spread through the church. The carpet became old and faded, torn and missing bits in places. The pews became rotted and chipped at the corners. Glass fell from the windows, shattering as it hit the ground. The paintings on the wall became faded and disappeared, replaced by pictures of a hellish scene. Monsters tore and bit into the flesh of humans in the painting.

The sirens continued to echo through the air as Leonard reached the bottom of the steps. Church moved his sword down to his side. "All right, which one of you vile sinners wants to die first?"

The people hesitated before a pair of them ran forward toward him. One brandished only his fist and the other held a board of wood. Leonard stood where he was, waiting until they got close enough. He slashed out with the katana, slicing one of the men across the chest. Church twisted the blade, bringing it up to deflect a strike from the man with the board. He shifted his stance and thrust forward, running the man through. Leonard placed his foot against the man's stomach and pulled his sword free. The two bodies fell to the ground, dead.

Alessa oddly felt no fear or horror at the sight as her father killed the two men. It seemed completely justifiable for him to have slaughtered both of those people. She frowned as she pondered this. She felt like this was nothing new, but she didn't remember her father ever being a cold-blooded killer. He was a soldier, had killed people, but that was in the line of duty. This was attacking crazed religious freaks.

Alessa froze as she became aware of a presence behind her. Slowly she turned her head and spotted the bloody faded butcher's apron. She looked up over the scarred bare chest to the blood-splattered metal helmet. Pyramid Head stood behind her, unmoving. She felt fear and shifted. The movement caused the monster to move his head. She wasn't sure if it had eyes, but she felt like they were on her. She stood up and took a step away from the creature.

She must have made some sort of noise because Leonard turned toward them. "It's about time you showed up."

There was a rumble of a response from Pyramid Head as he moved past Alessa and over to the great blade. He gripped the handle, and pulled it free from the wood. The blade looked right in his hand.

There was another rumble and Leonard groaned. "Seriously, learn English. I don't understand a damn thing you say." He then turned to look back at the gathered people. "How about you take the women and I'll take the men." Pyramid Head rumbled again and Leonard frowned. "Because I still don't feel comfortable about that. Get the fuck off my back. Not all of us are mindless faceless killing machines. Some of us have to sleep at night." There was another rumble, though it sounded more like a laugh. "Oh, shut up, it's still sleep even if it's a nightmare."

"I've had enough of this. That creature and this monster are enough proof that you are one of them." The priestess waved her arm toward Leonard. She took a step back and threw her arms out to the side. "He has killed our people. He and the other demon must die. They are all abominations against god."

"You don't know the first thing about god. You really think that I'm a demon?" Leonard shook his head and glanced over at Pyramid Head. "Can you believe this woman? She really doesn't get it." He sighed and bent his neck to the side until there was a slight crack. "Don't kill her. She's mine." Pyramid Head rumbled and Church glared at him. "This is not up for discussion. You don't get to kill her." He leaned over a bit so the little girl could see him. "Tell him to leave her to me."

"You leave the mean lady for Father to kill. He's going to show her how bad people get punished."

Pyramid Head rumbled, then turned toward Leonard, rumbling again. "Oh, shut it. She takes my side because I'm her Father. You're just…her uncle, I guess. Hell if I know. Just because I understand doesn't mean I understand." He paused for a moment then looked back at the people who were all staring at him, confused. "All right, we've wasted enough time. Let's slaughter some religious nuts." Leonard moved forward and Pyramid Head followed.

~End Chapter 17~


	18. Chapter 18

Retribution Chapter 18

The sword swung through the air and blood sprayed forth from the wound. Church stood up and rolled his shoulders. "Do you see anyone else?" A rumble echoed through the church as Pyramid Head replied. There were bodies strewed about them. The last ten minutes had consisted solely of Church and his butcher friend chasing down and slaughtering the followers of the priestess. "All right, then, we can get to the main event." Church turned and started to walk toward the priestess. "See, all these guys are small change. They barely even register, but you, you and that damn woman before you. You two must suffer for what you did."

Pyramid Head grabbed the woman, lifting her a couple feet off the floor. Leonard walked toward her and put away his katana. "You see you messed with the wrong people. You messed with my family, and people who mess with my family can't get away with it."

The little girl wiggled in Tex's arms, trying to get free. "Yay! Father is going to punish the sinner for her crimes."

"What is wrong with children from that town?" Tex groaned as she tried to keep hold of the little girl. "Don't run toward the people being killed, be normal and stay away." Laughter spread through the church and Tex stared at the source. Leonard wasn't even trying to hide his laughter. "What are you laughing at, asshole?"

"You." Leonard shook his head and cracked his knuckles. "You really see that thing as a child." The smile fell from his face, his shoulders slumped, and his voice became serious. "You really are still blind to it. You don't see It for what It is. That thing isn't a child. It's a monster, like my friend here." Leonard smacked the back of his hand against Pyramid Head's chest. Church walked toward the altar, toward Tex. He stopped several feet from her. "It's a monster like me."

"You aren't a monster." Alessa moved to her mother's side, hesitating to move any closer to her father. "You—you aren't a monster."

"I'm not?" Church snorted. "You have no idea. I killed Henry, and James. I slit their throats, and I smashed in Henry's chest without batting an eye. I gladly slit the throat of the first priestess. I took pleasure in her death. How am I not a monster?"

Alessa looked at him, stunned by the confession. "You really killed them." Alessa fell to her knees, her eyes wide in horror. "Why would you do that?"

Leonard flinched as he saw the look in her eyes. He hated that she was afraid of him. "Alessa." He reached out to her and she moved away from him. He withdrew the hand and then turned toward Tex. He glared at the child in her arms. "Now see what you've done? You've made her afraid of me."

"I'm not the one that killed them." The little girl stuck her tongue out at Church. "It's not my fault."

"You're the one that ordered me to do it." Leonard took a deep breath to calm himself. "And now I'm here doing what you've ordered me to, once again."

"Yes, now do as you've been ordered. Kill the sinner." The little girl glared at Church. Tex dropped her from her arms, surprised. "Do as you have been ordered, Father."

"I wish you'd stop calling me that." Leonard sighed and turned around. "I'm going to do it. I don't see why I should rush it." There was a surprised rumble and Leonard turned his attention to Pyramid Head. "Oh, that's why."

Pyramid Head dropped the priestess, taking a few steps back. His feet crushed the chests and skulls of corpses as he moved away from the fallen human. The priestess writhed on the floor, her body convulsing. Bones cracked and skin tore as the priestess started to change. The transformation continued for a minute until she fell still.

As the priestess's corpse began its metamorphosis Leonard took a deep breath and glanced over his shoulder. "Alex, I'm leaving you in charge of protecting her, and Alessa."

Alex nodded and pulled Tex and Alessa back behind the main altar. "Why are you protecting me?" Tex glared at him. "I'm the adult here."

"He told me to protect you. He's the one that's giving me my orders, I think." Alex scratched his head then looked at It. "Right?" It just shrugged and he sighed. "Either way, just get to cover. Things are going to get violent."

"How do you know that things are going to get violent? The lady is dead." Alessa motioned toward the mutated corpse.

"She's not dead. Well, not normal dead. Stop asking questions." Alex pushed her back toward Tex. "You keep her there, please."

Tex grabbed Alessa and pulled her back behind the table. Alex moved to stand beside It, watching Church. The two women huddled at the side of the sacrificial table, watching the scene. Church stood watching the broken corpse.

Flesh slowly started to move as the priestess' body was reanimated. Long arms rose up into the air. The forearms were five feet long while the upper arm was only four. Long clawed fingers spread out over the bloody wooden floor, creating a sturdy foundation. Slowly, the rest of the body rose up. The creature's former legs were bent and twisted, feet having been replaced by bird-like talons. The body was curved, spine elongated and swinging in the air as it moved. It raised its head, one black sunken eye landing on Church. The creature spread its jaws, revealing a line of razor-sharp teeth, purple-black tongue slithering out to taste the air. Brown liquid leaked from the creature's mouth. The liquid hit the floor and the wood sizzled.

Church sighed and pulled out his katana. He took up a fighting stance and glared at the creature. "All right, you bitch, bring it on." The creature screamed at him and he flinched at the sound. "You scream more like a girl then Simmons." That was all he had to say for the creature to charge.

Leonard dove out of the way as it crashed through the pews. He managed to avoid the talons and the creature skidded to a halt. "Don't care much about what's in your way. Good to know. Unluckily for you, I've gotten pretty good at this." The creature set itself down on its talons. Leonard raised his katana just in time as it swung its arms around. The back of one of its hands hit Church hard. He was sent flying through the air until he hit the floor, rolling through the blood and remains of his victims.

Church groaned and rolled over onto his stomach. "Damn, I should have cleaned up first." He struggled to his feet and then dropped back down, barely avoiding the talons of the creature as it passed over him. He didn't waste a moment, rolling over and taking off at a full sprint to get away. He had to get out of its swinging range. He felt the wind rush past him as the long claws passed only inches away. He skidded to a halt and turned to face the monster. He made note of how far away he was. Sadly, it was out of the range at which he would be at all able to attack. The creature slowly turned partially toward him.

It moved so it fully put its weight on one hand, rising up and swinging its other arm. The second hand came crashing down, and Church leapt out of the way. The wood splintered under the impact. Church moved to his feet, and swung his sword. The blade hit the creature's arm and it screamed in pain. The arm was withdrawn and Church smirked. He now knew he could hurt it.

The creature struck out with its arm again and Church stepped out of the way. He swung again and the katana struck it. Blood seeped from the wound. As the arm retracted back toward the creature its claws scratched over Leonard's side. He fell to one knee and clutched his side. The creature moved back onto its hands and charged forward. Church flung himself to the side to avoid it. He hit the floor hard and lay there.

Leonard struggled to his feet, slipping a bit in the blood and guts on the floor under him. "You aren't going to help, are you?" Pyramid Head shook its metal helmet at the question. "Damn, fine, I'll do this on my own." Leonard turned toward the creature and raised his sword. He ducked down as a pew went flying through the air. It barely missed Leonard, crashing into Pyramid Head. The executioner stumbled back but remained standing.

"Hey, don't throw shit at my friend!" Leonard ran forward, toward the monster. It seemed surprised by this for only a second. It struck out with a hand, but he simply dropped down, sliding under the strike. He struck out with his blade, chopping into the creature's arm. It wailed in pain and the second hand rose up, striking down. The hand hit him in the chest, pinning him to the floor. The creature put its full force on his chest. He heard the crack of bones and Leonard gripped the creature's hand, trying to force it off.

Alessa wrenched herself away from Tex, trying to run out to Church. Alex grabbed her in a vice-like grip, and stopped her in her tracks. "You can't go down there, Alessa."

"I have to help him! That thing is going to kill my father. I have to stop it!" Alessa struggled against his grip, but it was hopeless.

"There's nothing you can do, Alessa. He can take care of himself. I thought you always told me that your dad could do anything. That he could beat anything. Have you lost faith?" Alessa relaxed in his arms and instead clung to him for support. "Trust me, Heather, everything is going to be fine." A hand slapped him across the face. "What was that for?"

"Stop calling me Heather!" She glared up at him and then grabbed his arm again, holding onto it as she looked back out at her father. Alex nodded, satisfied that she would stay put.

Leonard continued to struggle under the creature's grip. He moved his sword onto the back of the creature's hand so the sharp edge of the blade was against it. He gripped the handle and the blade, pulling the sword toward him. It cut into the skin and the creature screamed in pain. Leonard released the blade, letting the creature pull back its hand. Church rolled over on the floor, forcing himself to get onto his hands and knees. He found it hard to breathe. Part of his rib cage was definitely crushed.

Church moved to his feet and faced the creature. He saw it charge toward him. There was no time to jump out of the way. Talons dug into Church's shoulder and he was raised up off the ground before being slammed down. Leonard couldn't help the scream of pain that was torn from his mouth as he hit the floor.

"Father!" Church turned toward the sound, spotting Alessa. He saw the tears threatening to flow from her eyes and how tightly she was clinging to Alex's arm. He was sure she was cutting off the circulation.

Leonard turned his attention back up to the monster. He gripped his sword tighter and stabbed up. His sword hit the creature's stomach. It roared in pain and fell down to the floor. Leonard pulled the talons out of his shoulders and stood up, moving over the creature. He stuck with the sword, slicing into the creature's stomach. It flailed furiously. He stabbed and hacked at the creature until he moved up to its skull. The creature screamed at him and bits of its saliva splattered on Church's arm. He ignored it as part of his shirt burned away. He raised the katana, stabbing down. The sword hit its mark, piercing the creature through the skull. It finally fell to the floor limply.

Leonard pulled the sword free and took a step back. He looked up toward the altar and smiled at Alessa. "Nothing to worry about." He then looked over at It and frowned. Heather stood at the altar, staring at him. He had a sudden understanding and he frowned. He knew what It wanted from him and even the idea of it chilled his blood. "I really hate you."

Tex ran down from the altar to Church's side. She stopped before him and looked at his bleeding side. She hesitated. He reached out and pulled her into a hug. He held her tightly. "Forgive me for what I must do."

Alex felt a shiver run through him as he came to an understanding of what was to happen. He pried Alessa from his arm and pressed the handle of the knife into her hand. She looked at him, waiting for an explanation. He only moved back, pulling Tex back with him.

Alessa watched them, confused. She turned around to ask Church what was going on. She fell back just in time to avoid being hit by the blade of the katana. She looked up at Church who stood over her. He had his katana in hand and raised it to strike at her again.

~End chapter 18~


	19. Chapter 19

Retribution Chapter 19

"I don't understand." Tucker scratched his head. "You're Allison Church." The red-headed woman nodded. "And he's Leonard Church." She nodded again. "But he's old." Tucker motioned to the still hanging man. "And why the hell is he up there?"

"Because that's where that thing put him. I don't really understand it. I'm just here to protect him." Allison sighed and looked over at Tucker. "I don't even know who the hell you are and you're saying you know my husband."

"There's another thing. Tex and Church never got married. Why do you keep calling him your husband?" Tucker took a step away from the body of one of the monsters. Even though they were dead he still found them creepy.

"I don't go by Tex anymore. Leonard and I were married for a little while. Not as long as I would have liked, but we were married. I can't believe that Leonard would let someone call him by his last name, either." Allison leaned closer to the old man. She reached up and placed a hand on his chest. The man raised his head just enough to be able to look at her.

"What do you mean you were only married for a little while?" Donut asked.

"I mean we were married, and then I was killed in the war." Allison frowned. "You act like you know me, but I swear I have never met any of you."

"Well, we met a woman named Tex. She looks just like you and she dated Church." Tucker glanced over at Sister. He felt awkward watching the two interact. "How did you get here, anyway, if you died?"

Allison shrugged. "I don't really have words for it. The thing offered me a chance to protect my husband. I've always felt bad about how things ended, about everything that my death did to him. It tore him apart and he became so determined. He joined those damn spooks and started that project." She looked away from the old man. "It was all because of my death. It tipped him over the edge."

"Wait, did you say that he started a project? A military project?" Tucker shared a look with Sarge and then turned back to Allison.

"What other kind of project could it be? Where do you think we are?" Allison motioned to the area around them.

"I thought we were in a jail." Donut looked around. "Though now that you mention it, there are no cells around here."

"Of course not, we aren't in a jail. We're on a military base, in a laboratory." Allison motioned to the metal walls around them and the series of doors that led off into hallways.

"So then, we are right back to where we started. We were in Silent Hill but now we're back on the base. These were the labs that he worked in?" Tucker moved across the open space to one of the doors. He read the engraving above the door. Laboratory 113—Human Bioengineering Studies.

"I think these are the laboratories he used. I don't really know. He started the project after my death, after college." Allison watched Tucker carefully. "What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for something. If I'm correct, then he's the reason why our lives are all fucked up." Tucker stopped as he reached another laboratory. Laboratory 117—Artificial Intelligence Development. "Did he ever talk about AIs?"

"He never said anything about it to me, but I don't really know much about what his project was about." Allison relaxed a bit. Whatever Tucker was doing, it wasn't a threat to her duty.

Tucker thumbed the controls to the door to Lab 117. The door squeaked as it slid open. He looked inside, examining the contents of the room. The others gathered behind him, curious as to what he was looking at. Tucker glanced over his shoulder at Allison, who was still standing alone beside the bloody old man.

Tucker entered the room and looked around. There were cobwebs all over the equipment in the room. Dust covered every flat surface. Tucker moved through the laboratory, not exactly sure what he was looking for. Something fell and broke and Tucker turned around, glaring at Caboose. He heard the ever-familiar claim of innocence and the passing of the blame. "Don't touch anything , Caboose. We don't know what any of this stuff does."

Sarge tapped the top of the device. "Of course we know what it does. This thing obviously creates secret launch codes and codenames for operations."

"I think that's just a microwave," Donut spoke up.

"Nonsense, Donut, it's obviously a piece of high-precision equipment." Sarge glared at the pink private.

"Would you all be quiet?" Tucker groaned as he moved over to a table, looking through the things on it.

"What are you looking for?" Sister moved to stand beside him, picking up a dusty beaker.

"I'm looking for any clues that might point toward what his project was about." Tucker set down a device that he'd been looking at.

"Why does that matter to you?" Sister sighed as he walked away from her.

"Because I think that the project she was talking about was Project Freelancer." Tucker opened a drawer and shut it.

Donut perked up at this idea. "Wait, that project that Tex was part of?"

"That's the one. AIs, bioengineering. It could be the place." Tucker stopped and then hurried to the back of the room. He looked at the door and stared at the words on the window. "What does that say?"

"It looks like it says 'Director'." Sarge tilted his head to the side. "Yeah, definitely Director."

Tucker opened the door and it slid inward easily. Tucker carefully entered the room, clicking on the lights. The florescent bulb flickered to life, filling the room with a soft glow. Tucker moved through the office. He moved to the desk and sat down in the chair. It was harder than he had expected. Definitely not what he had expected for the director of a military project.

"Are you sure that you should be sitting there?" Sister seemed uneasy, shifting a bit uncomfortably.

"If you don't like it here, go out and wait with the weird lady." Tucker moved the mouse about looking through the files on the computer. He found a folder hidden away on the desktop called 'pictures of squirrels'. "Pay dirt. It's an audio journal."

Tucker clicked through the entry titles. "Well don't just sit there, play them." Sarge pulled up a chair and sat down across from Tucker.

The teal soldier sighed. "I'm getting to it. I just have to choose a good one to start with. But no asking questions. I don't know the answers so I can't answer questions."

The soldiers sat down around the desk to listen to the journal.

Tucker chose a random entry and hit play. A voice filtered through the air, a deep southern accent, calm and cool as it spoke.

"_Today I conversed with it. Calling it 'it' seems like the wrong word. I suppose that I should refer to it by its name. I spoke to Alpha today. Alpha has come to the same conclusion as I have. We have agreed that we must move to the next stage of the project. I have completely laid out what the next stage will consist of. Alpha has shown no hesitation as to what must be done. No matter what I was going to move forward, but somehow Alpha agreeing makes it easier_."

"What the hell is an Alpha?" Sarge frowned and crossed his arms.

"Didn't I say not to ask questions? I don't know what an Alpha is. Now quiet." Tucker shot him a glare before moved on to another entry.

"_Today is the last day of harvesting. We got more than I had expected. Though oddly we are left with some complicated fragments. They have all been sealed away for studying at a later date. I have already given particular attention to a few of them, namely her. She is not like the others, she is something…different. What is most interesting is the remaining fragment that was left. This thing seems to be almost human. Although not placed into a sealed container it seemed unable to do even the simplest of tasks. It does not recognize the name of Alpha, and seems to only want to be called by my name. This requires more study." _

Tucker moved down the line of entries skipping ahead a few years.

"_Alpha has to be moved. I have sent her in to remove all of the personnel. I know that she will finish the job quickly and without problem. Alpha will then be moved to a secure location. I have chosen what I feel is the most secure location. The Captain should be able to ensure that Alpha is safe. As long as he is around, I do not feel that there is anything to worry about." _

Tucker moved on to the next entry. As the entry started the southern accent sounded annoyed.

"_I have underestimated the stupidity of these inadequate soldiers. Somehow they have managed to kill the Captain, and a recent transmission from them has informed us that Alpha has been blown up, by his own team. They have requested more troops and I am sending her in. Hopefully she can mop up this mess and we can move Alpha to a better location." _

Tucker scrolled down the series of entries to almost the end. The voice started out strained, tired.

"_A team was sent to Blood Gulch today. They found a train in the center of the canyon. Only those idiots would find a way to crash a train in a box canyon. They all claim having seen monsters and that Alpha has been killed. I find this highly improbable." The southern voice turned softer. "What is more perplexing is that Tex is now in a human body. I do not see how this is possible, but she is human now. She has no memory of what she once was. I have decided to leave it this way. It is better that she be allowed to live a life as a human. She had adopted a daughter as well. I always knew that Allison would make a good mother. She will stay here, on base, where I can watch her and ensure that she and this child get all that they need." _

Tucker paused for a moment, shifting a bit in his seat. It was odd hearing this voice talk about them. He clicked the next entry.

"_An odd fog has rolled onto base. I have been having these nightmares for weeks. Not only now does my beloved wife haunt me, but now Alpha haunts me. He tells me of sins that I have committed and must pay for. Each night it is almost exactly the same. I fear that I am going insane and this fog is unsettling. It is identical to the fog that rolls in before Alpha comes for me. I know that he will, and I will not fight him. I have lived longer than I thought I would without my beloved by my side. I now wait for him to come for me, for him to take me away for my sin. I will leave content in the knowledge that Allison lives on as Tex. Alpha always brings monsters with him when he comes for me. I pray that if I go with him without a fight, he will not bring them with him." _

Tucker moved to the final entry in the diary. This entry had a distinct sound in the background. Pounding, screams. _"The monsters have come. I have heard them killing things outside. I have heard the screams as they have killed the soldiers on base. I am waiting here, knowing that he is coming for me. I welcome your arrival, Alpha. Come take me to my hell." _

Tucker sat back in the chair. "So I was right." He said the words just barely above a whisper.

"You were right about what?" Sister tilted her head to the side. She didn't know at all what was going on.

"Why is the door locked?" Caboose pulled on the handle of the door trying to get it open, but it wouldn't budge.

"Who shut the door at all?" Tucker frowned as he stood up from the chair.

"Does anyone smell that?" Donut sniffed the air. He swayed a bit and giggled. "It smells funny." The pink soldier collapsed to the floor.

Caboose hit the floor, followed by Sister. Sarge fell out of his chair.

"What's going on?" Tucker looked toward the door and could see the outline of Allison standing in the window. "What are you doing?" He slumped back down on the chair and his head hit the desk as his world went black.

~End Chapter 19


	20. Chapter 20

Retribution Chapter 20

The katana hit the floor where Alessa had just been. The teenage girl scrambled to her feet and ran from Church. "What are you doing, Dad?" Alessa backed up, her feet slipping a bit in the blood. She looked toward the altar. "Alex, do something!"

Alex shook his head. Leonard turned toward Alessa. "Fight back!" He charged forward again and Alessa turned and ran away from him.

"I'm not going to fight you, you're my father." She moved behind one of the broken pews for cover. "Why are you doing this?"

"I told you. I'm a monster, just like the others." Church walked toward her hiding spot. "I am not your father."

"I don't believe that! I know that you are him. I can see it!" Alessa screamed as the tip of the katana struck the ground beside her. She tried to get away as he pulled the blade free. The blade swung and Alessa wasn't able to get away from it in time. It nicked her cheek. She turned tail and ran from him. Her hand went to her cheek, feeling the blood seep from the cut.

"You only see an illusion." Church raised up his blade and looked at the slight trace of blood from where he'd cut her.

"What is going on?" Grif pulled on Alex's arm to get his attention.

"Dad? Where have you been?" Alex hesitated for a moment, glancing over at the little girl, then back to his father. He kept his hands to himself.

"I was getting Simmons. Church could have killed us when he went on that rampage." Grif looked over his shoulder at Simmons, who was fully focused on the father-daughter fight. "What is going on?"

"He wouldn't have killed you. You haven't done anything wrong." Alex looked out at the conflict. "What is happening is what must happen. We must stay out of it."

Alessa kept a close eye on Church as he moved toward her. She gripped the knife in her hand and shook her head. "I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to fight my father." She dropped the blade and stood up, facing him.

"Pick it up." Church stopped several feet from Alessa. She shook her head and he scowled. "You will not defend yourself. But maybe you'll defend him." Church turned and walked up the main aisle.

Alex turned toward Grif. "Dad, go down to Tex. You'll be safe there." Grif frowned at him and he turned back to Church. The teenager moved down the steps to the base of the altar. He stopped there, taking deep calming breaths.

Leonard moved to stand before Alex. He raised his sword and swung. "Stop!" The blade halted only centimeters from Alex's throat. "Don't hurt him." Church turned to look back at the source of the voice. Alessa stood, knife in hand.

"Fight me or I kill him." Church's voice was flat. He didn't lower the blade.

Alessa hesitated for a moment, shifting her stance and holding up the knife. "I'll fight."

Church lowered the blade. He glared at Alex and the teenager looked down to the floor. Church grabbed the collar of Alex's shirt. He pulled him close and hissed something into his ear before he pushed the teen away from him. Alex stumbled back, looking at Church with wide eyes.

Alessa watched as Church turned toward her and stalked across the space between them. She could feel herself shaking, fear running through her veins. She took a deep breath and waited for him to attack.

Church stopped several feet from her. "This seems a bit unfair." He glanced at his sword, then at her knife. Leonard raised the katana and slammed it down, point first into the floor. He left it embedded in the floor. He reached up, tearing away the burned remains of his shirt.

Alessa stared at him, confused by his actions. She was more confused by the series of markings that covered his torso. They were so familiar, but she couldn't place what they meant. She wasn't even sure where she had seen them. She glanced toward the katana, confused as to why he wasn't using it.

Church reached behind his back and pulled out the sacrificial knife. He took a deep breath and smiled. Alessa looked into his eyes and she felt a chill in the air. His eyes were cold. She could still see a hint of her father behind them, but they seemed to be covered by something else. Something that wanted to kill her.

He charged forward and she moved out of the way of the first couple of swings. She didn't know how to fight and here she was fighting her father. He rounded on her and she raised her knife to try to defend. Their blades stuck and Alessa was surprised that she managed to keep her hold on her knife. Her hand stung from the force of his blow and she was sure that he could easily disarm her. She didn't think he would. He'd refused to fight her when she didn't have the blade in hand before.

He charged at her and she tried to dodge the blows. Most of them missed, but one hit her in the arm and she flinched. Church took this as his chance, striking with all his force. The knife went flying from Alessa's hand and landed across the room from them by a pile of broken wood.

Leonard stopped his attack, taking a step back away from her. "Find a new weapon. I will not fight you unarmed." He glanced toward the altar. "Unless you would rather that I took his life instead."

Alessa glanced in Alex's direction. He knew that she would fight him. She looked around and spotted the closest weapon. She moved slowly toward it and reached out. The handle felt warm in her hand. She had to grip it with both hands and pull with all her might. The katana broke out of the wood where it had been lodged and Alessa held it uneasily. She'd never carried a weapon like it but somehow it felt right in her hands. The teenage girl turned toward Leonard, sword wavering a bit as she held it up. She hesitated for a moment, seeing something flash through Leonard's eyes. Something soft that she identified as regret, though she wasn't sure.

Leonard charged forward and she moved the sword. The blades struck, and the sound of metal on metal echoed through the air as Alessa deflected his attacks. She was surprised as how easily she found it to move the blade and block against each of his strikes. He was good though, and she wasn't sure how long she would be able to keep it up.

Leonard took a step back and moved the knife in his hand so that the blade was on the opposite side of his hand as his thumb. He swung with renewed purpose and Alessa found it harder to deflect each and every blow.

"You can't stay on the defensive forever." His blade struck hers, knocking it down toward the ground. She stumbled back away from him. The knife spun in his hand and he stabbed forward, toward her chest. Alessa screwed her eyes shut and thrust forward with her sword in a desperate attempt to keep the attack away.

The blow never struck her chest. Warm liquid ran down the length of the sword and dripped to the floor. Alessa slowly opened her eyes and she found herself staring back into the caring and sad eyes of her father. She looked down and saw the sword piercing his chest.

Alessa released the handle and took a step back, hands covering her mouth. She fell to her knees and sat back on her heels. "What have I done?" Tears streamed from her eyes as Church wavered before her.

Leonard reached up, pulling the blade out of his chest and letting it fall to the ground. He moved to stand before Alessa. She closed her eyes and waited for him to strike her. She heard the knife hit the floor and his knees impact with the wood.

Warm arms wrapped around her and she was pulled into his embrace. "Don't cry, sweetie." His voice was quiet and calm. He showed no indication of fear or pain as he bled out. "I would die a thousand times for you." He chuckled after these words and Alessa clung to him.

"Don't die, Dad. You have to come home with Mom and me." She couldn't stop herself from trembling or keep the water from flowing from her eyes.

"I'm sorry, honey. That's not the way it is to be." Leonard pulled her away from him and she let her eyes close as he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. Her arms fell to her sides as sobs shook her body. Something plushy was placed in her lap and she looked down at the bloody blue dragon stuffed animal. "Remember your father always loves you."

Alessa looked up at him and he smiled at her. Her hands moved to clutch the little dragon to her chest protectively. Leonard's hands fell from around her and he collapsed to the side. Alessa jumped a bit as she looked up at Pyramid Head. The giant butcher knelt down and wrapped an arm around Church's waist. He lifted the body up and slung it over his shoulder.

"Where are you taking him?" Alessa tried to stand up but found Alex's hand on her shoulder. He knelt beside her, keeping her in place. He slowly shook his head and she returned her gaze to Pyramid Head. "Where is he taking him?"

"He's taking him to where he belongs." Alex hesitated before he continued. "He's taking him to our home."

Alessa turned back to him, her eyes locking with his. "Are you going with them?" Her hand reached out toward him and gripped one of his arms. She didn't want to lose Church and Alex in the same day.

"If It wants me to go then I must. I am Its to command." Alex looked away from her, not able to take the fear in her eyes. "I was sent here to protect Her when It came for the original. Now that It won't be coming back She doesn't need protection."

Alessa's arms wrapped around Alex's neck and she hugged him. His arms snaked around her and he returned the embrace. Alessa clung tighter to him as footsteps neared them. She moved her head and saw the face of a woman staring back at her. She didn't recognize her, but she knew who it was. "Are you going to take him?" The words were hesitant.

The woman shrugged, reaching up and moving a few strands of her fire-red hair behind her ear. "I don't know. You want to keep him?" Alessa nodded and clung to Alex tighter. The woman tilted her head to each side, biting her lip as she thought. "Well, I guess he's not very useful to me. He'd just ruin the fun." She huffed at the idea. "Fine, you can keep him. But just so he remembers who he belongs to."

The woman reached out and placed a hand on Alex's back. He clung tighter to Alessa and buried his face in her neck as he screamed. Alessa held him tighter. She watched as the woman raised her hand and blood soaked through the back of his shirt. Alessa looked over at the woman. "What did you do?"

"Just marked him. He'll get over it. One has to show proper ownership." The woman stood up and Alessa watched her. It smiled up at Pyramid Head. "Come on, Uncle. Time to put Father to rest." She moved down the aisle toward the main church doors. She seemed to float more than walk as her long red dress pooled around her feet. The doors opened before her and light flooded in. Pyramid Head followed behind her as they exited the church. He stopped at the entrance, pulling the doors shut. As the door shut, everything went black.

Alessa sat up in her bed, panting for breath. She felt arms around her waist and she screamed, pushing the person away. He hit the floor and cried out in pain. Alessa crawled over to the side of her bed and looked down at Alex. "What the hell are you doing in my room?"

"Hell if I know. Why did you kick me off the bed?" Alex sat up and reached to touch his back, flinching.

The door to Alessa's bedroom burst open and Tex ran into the room. She hurried to Alessa, pulling her daughter toward her. "Are you all right?" She held her daughter away from her, looking her over for injury.

"I'm fine, Mom. I had this weird nightmare." Alessa shook her head and frowned. It had been so vivid.

Alex stood up and groaned. "Is it bruised?" He pulled the shirt up and Alessa stared at him. "What? How bad is it?"

Alessa stared at the fresh scar on his back. It was a simple cross with an 'A' overlapping it. "It wasn't a dream?" She turned back to her mother and Tex pulled her close.

Alessa clung to her mother as she broke into sobs. "I killed Dad."

"What happened to your back?" Grif rushed into the room and to his son's side, turning him to examine the scar. He glanced over at Tex who was still trying to comfort her daughter.

Alex looked over his shoulder at Grif. "Is it really that bad?"

Grif tuned his son around and hugged him tightly. "No, you'll be fine. It looks worse than it is." Simmons joined them a few minutes later, and hugged Alex as well.

Tex released Alessa and smiled at her daughter. "I'm glad you are all right." Alessa grabbed her stuffed dragon, clutching it to her chest.

Alex moved over to the bed and grabbed Alessa in a tight bear hug. "Thanks for not ditching me the first chance that you got." Alessa returned the hug, smiling slightly.

The ring of a phone echoed through the house. "I'll get it." Simmons moved from the room to answer it.

Grif glanced out of the window and frowned. "I'm going to so see what those cop lights are about." He moved out of the room, making his way down the stairs.

"Tex, you're going to want to hear this," Simmons shouted from down the hall.

Tex hesitated for a moment before she moved out of the room to hear what Simmons had to tell her. Alex remained, Alessa still clinging to him. "You did the right thing." The words were just barely above a whisper, but she heard them. Alessa buried her face into his chest and cried.

End


	21. Epilogue

Retribution Epilogue

Alessa sat on the bench in her front yard. She stared up at the sky, watching the clouds pass overhead. Someone sat beside her and she smiled, looking over at him. "Hey, haven't seen you the past few days."

"Sorry I haven't been around. Dad has been fussing like crazy over that thing on my back." Alex sighed and leaned back on the bench. "Dad said that he shouldn't get all worried, but he can't help it. It's been a week, though, and I haven't turned into a monster, so Dad is calming down."

"When you just call them Dad I can't tell which ones you are talking about." Alessa shook her head and shifted. "So the cops didn't come to talk to your family?"

Alex shook his head. "Nope. From what Uncle Tucker said they don't have any suspects. I mean, I guess it was more of a drop in the bucket after all the soldiers that were killed at the base. He also said that they thought he was crazy when he asked about a monster."

"And your memory is still fuzzy?" Alessa ran her hand over the cover of the book on her lap. "Has Uncle Tucker told you anything about what happened to him and the others?"

"Yeah, I still only sort of remember it all. I mean you keep talking about how I knew stuff, but whenever I think about it I just draw a blank. I really don't have any idea. I mean, I remember what happened, but I don't remember why I did things." Alex shook his head. "He hasn't told us anything about what happened. Sister, Sarge, Donut, and Caboose all tell basically the same story. They say something about a lab, listening to some journal entries, and then they all passed out and woke up in their homes. They all said Tucker seemed to know what was going on but he won't say."

"Mom has been trying to convince him to tell her, but he keeps telling her that he doesn't remember." Alessa sighed.

Alex looked down at the book then back to Alessa with wide eyes. "You found it again?"

Alessa tilted her head to the side, at first not understanding. She then realized that he meant the book on her lap. "Yeah, I found it like three days ago. It was on my desk with the katana."

"You mean the one from the church?" Alex stared at her for a moment. "Where did you get them?"

"They were just sitting on my desk. There wasn't any blood on the katana, though. I hung it over my bed." Alessa looked down at the journal in her lap. "There was a new entry in it. I have no idea what it's about, but it talks about what happened. That means he is still alive."

Alex groaned. "I thought we were done with this."

Alessa hit him on the arm. "Don't talk about my dad like that. It's not like I'm going to go looking for him. And from what you said I don't think that that place will bother us again."

Alex looked down to his feet. "Alessa, why did you stop him from killing me?"

"That's a stupid question. I think a better question is why were you willing to let him kill you? And what did he say to you that made you so afraid of him?" Alessa crossed her arms.

"I don't exactly remember. I remember being compelled to stand there, to let him do it." He blushed a bit before he continued. "He just threatened me. Said that I should be careful or he'd come out of my nightmares and kill me. He just said it so seriously. Like he could actually kill me in my dreams."

"My dad is not Freddy Krueger." Alessa glared at him. "Can't you just be glad that I wanted to keep you around?"

"I am glad. I'm just curious. I mean, you always tell me how amazing your dad is and how much he means to you and then you go and are willing to fight him to keep him from killing me." Alex raised up his hands in defense.

"I was actually planning on letting him kill me." Alessa sighed and put up a hand to stop Alex from speaking. "I wasn't going to choose one or the other. I didn't mean to kill him, it was an accident."

"Well, you might hate me for saying this, but I'm glad you killed him. I don't know what I would have done if he'd killed you." Alex put a hand over Alessa's shoulder.

"I think you would have gone to Silent Hill with him. You said that you were going to go with them because it was your home." Alessa didn't push his arm away, which surprised him. "You said it was your home and that woman was going to take you with her until I said I wanted you to stay."

"Well, thanks for keeping me around. I don't think I'd want to live at Silent Hill." Alex grinned at her.

Alessa couldn't help but smile back at him. She leaned over and pecked him on the cheek before she stood up. Alex stared up at her, surprised and blushing. "Come on, Mom made chocolate chip cookies. I know how much you like them." She turned and walked back into her house. Alex followed her inside.

_Dear anyone that cares,_

_So once more I am lost in this place. He is here with me so at least I am not alone. I have gone to visit the new residents; it was quite the fight to get to them. It was good to see them again, even if that was how it had to end. I hated to see that look on her face but it was what had to happen. I know that in the end I left myself open as I had to. I still curse It for making that the only option for it to end. I am just glad that I have managed to keep Her there. She deserves to have a life. It was my fault that Tex existed at all. I was always only a series of programming lines that thought I was something more. I have given Tex the chance to be what I thought I was. I gladly gave my life for her to be human, to be more than just a fragment of me. I made her because like the Director, I was desperate to have her back. Alessa is a great bonus. She was like Harry, James, and Henry. Trapped in this world. She has been given a chance to be something more, and if having her kill me was what had to happen so she could remain in that life, I would let her kill me again. _

_Well I hear the sirens again. He is here and ready for the new game. Time to put my new weapon to use._

_Ready to play,_

_Father_

A/N: I'd just like to thank everyone that has read this fic. I do hope that you will review because I'd like to know what you think of it. A special thanks goes to Martienne for betaing this whole story and all of Silent Gulch. She really helped to make this story better. I enjoyed writing this fic and I hope that you enjoyed reading it.

Firerwolf (a.k.a Risu-sama)


	22. Christmas Special

Tex smiled as she looked out the window at the two ten-year-old children playing outside. Alex fell to the snow as a snowball hit him square in the side of the head. Tex chuckled as Alessa stood over him laughing.

"You can tell she's your child." Simmons joined her by the window. "Hey Grif, can you call the kids in? I think we're ready to start decorating the tree."

"Why don't you do it?" Grif bit off a bit more of his cookie. Simmons glared at him. "Fine, I'll go get them." He pulled himself up off the couch and moved to the doorway.

"Wow, you got him off his lazy ass." Tex smirked at Simmons. "Can I ask, why do you seem to always wear maroon?"

Simmons looked down at the maroon sweater. "I wear it because it's my favorite color. The big question is why does Grif still wear orange. He isn't that big of a fan of it." Simmons looked out the window at Grif, who was now chasing the two children, his orange sweater all the more hideous due to the reindeer on his chest. The two children ran from him and he struggled to get even close to him. "I think you're going to need to help him."

"I'll be right back." Tex set down her hot chocolate on a table and moved to the door. She opened it and stuck her head out into the cold. "Time to decorate, anyone that's not back inside in three minutes doesn't get any presents on Christmas."

The three all raced back inside. Surprisingly Grif was the first one through the door. "Damn kids are harder to get a hold of than Simmons when we're in public."

"Your kid is a bit young for you to be making those kinds of jokes around him." Tex scowled at the orange soldier.

"Hey, he doesn't understand either why Simmons is so shy in public. I swear, we got the best kid ever. He doesn't have the slightest issue with me and Simmons." Grif smiled as he watched Alex run over to the tree. "Not to mention he's adorable. He sort of looks like he could be related to me or Simmons."

Tex shook her head. "You maybe, but not Simmons. His features just don't look right for it. Come on, we have to get the tree decorated before the others arrive. If Caboose gets here and it's not decorated he'll think that Christmas isn't coming."

"I don't want a repeat of last year. Took us forever to convince him that Christmas was still happening." Grif shook his head. "Come on, kids. We've got to make the tree look good for Santa."

They spent the next three hours decorating the trees. Part way through, Alessa attacked Alex and tied him up with tinsel. It took Simmons and Grif five minutes to get him untied. They had another fight when it came time to put the angel on top. Alex wanted to put it on, but in the end Alessa won out as it was her home.

When they finished and were sure that the tree was decorated properly, the guests started to arrive. Tucker was the first to arrive with Caboose and Sister. Sarge and Donut arrived a few minutes after them.

"All right, I think I have a good idea. How about we write letters to Santa?" Simmons smiled at Alessa and Alex.

"Oh, I want to do that." Caboose jumped up and down with Donut.

"Sure, why not." Tex moved through the kitchen, grabbing some paper and pencils. She set them out on the table. Alessa and Alex sat on one side while Caboose and Donut sat on the other.

Sister moved over and sat down beside Caboose. "So what are you asking Santa for this year?"

Caboose looked up from his letter, not understanding at first. A smile spread over his face as he came to an understanding. "I'm asking Santa for a puppy."

Sister frowned. "Caboose, you know you can't have a dog."

"Yes, but Santa can do anything." Caboose looked back down at his letter. It wasn't so much a letter but a picture of a badly drawn dog.

Sister sighed. There was no way she could tell him that he was wrong. "How about you, Donut?"

"I'm asking Santa for a new pair of designer jeans. Sarge washed my last ones and ruined them." Donut frowned and looked across the table. "What are you asking for, Alex?"

"I'm asking for a bike. I'm tired of having to walk everywhere. It takes too long." Alex didn't raise his head from his letter. He had to focus on wording it right or Santa might not bring him what he wanted.

Tex walked over to stand behind Alessa. "What are you asking for, Sweetie?"

Alessa looked up at her mother and smiled. "I'm asking for my dad to come home." The room fell silent and Alessa turned back to her letter. "I think that if I word it right and don't ask for anything else then Santa will bring him home."

Tex knelt down beside her daughter. She couldn't find the words to explain to her daughter that it couldn't happen. Simmons broke in before she could address the issue, suggesting that they go caroling, which was a mistake. They got attacked by three people who had gone off their meds and a lecture from a woman about some things called 'forerunners'.

#

Alessa woke up on Christmas morning. She jumped out of bed and raced downstairs. She ran to the tree but stopped as she looked around. Tex joined her several minutes later. Alessa looked up at her mother, a heartbroken look on her face. "Mom, why didn't Santa bring home Dad?"

Tex sat down on the couch and patted the seat beside her. Alessa moved over and sat down beside her, curling up at her mother's side. "Honey, your father can't come home. I know it's hard to understand, and I know it's not fair, but it can't be changed."

"But Uncle Caboose said that Santa could do anything. He should be able to bring Dad home." Alessa clung to her mother's side.

Tex took a deep breath. "You can't argue with your Uncle Caboose, and the things he says are usually wrong. He's not getting that dog he asked for. It's against the rules and he can't change that and neither can Santa."

"But it's not against the rules to have Dad." The little girl started to sob into the fabric of Tex's robe.

"But it's not possible. You know that your father isn't around anymore. Not by choice but because he isn't with us anymore." Tex rubbed her daughter's back. Tex stood up and moved over to the tree, pulling out a single present. She set it in her daughter's lap. "Here, I have a feeling this present might make you feel a bit happier."

Alessa hesitated but she knew that her mother wouldn't let it go until she opened it. She tore away the bright blue paper and opened the box. Alessa pulled out a picture frame and stared down at the image. She ran a finger over the handsome face that smiled back at her. "Is this…"

"It's your father." Tex smiled as she saw the joy on her daughters face. Tex had so few actual pictures of Church, and she'd kept most of them in her room or in a box of items from before the war. It was the first actual picture that Alessa had gotten of her father. Tex wondered if it was even the first time she'd seen his face. She never went into Tex's room, so she likely wouldn't have seen the several pictures that were in there.

"He looks so nice." Alessa stared down at the image, completely in a spell.

"He really was, and he loved you very much." Tex leaned forward and kissed her daughter on the top of her head. She then went back to the tree and started to pull out presents and they spent the rest of the morning opening gifts.

When they'd finished and Tex had set to gathering up all the blue wrapping paper, because red would be a sin in their house, Alessa ran upstairs. She stood in her room for a while then finally moved to her bedside table. She set the picture up beside the one of her and her mother. She smiled as she sat down on the bed and lay down. She scooted the frame just a bit so she could be sure that when she woke up she'd be able to see both her mother's face and her father's.

Alessa sat up as something caught her eye. She reached over to the frame and turned it around. The corner of a worn piece of paper was sticking out of the back of the frame. She opened the frame and pulled out the folded paper. She then set the picture back down and opened the paper. It was a handwritten letter and a smile spread over Alessa's face as she read it.

_Dear Beloved Daughter,_

_I know that I cannot be there with you. I wish that I could but it is not so. I want you to know that everything I do, every fight I fight, and every wound I receive, I do because I love you and I want to give you a better life. I want to keep you safe and fighting is the only way I can. I know that you will hate me for not being there, you have the right to, but I know that one day you'll forgive me and know that I regret missing those important moments. Sacrifice is a part of life, and until I have nothing left to give, I will sacrifice all I can so that you don't have to. _

_With all the love in the universe,_

_Your loving father_

#

Church looked out the window at the gathering snow. "That's actual snow." The words mirrored the surprised look on his face. "It never snows." He glanced over his shoulder at Pyramid Head. "Why is it snowing?" The metal helmet turned toward him and he frowned. "Right, you don't speak English." He looked back out the window. His eyes became unfocused. "It must be winter. They'll be celebrating Christmas soon. I bet she has the happiest look on her face while she's opening presents." A smile slowly spread over his face. He heard Pyramid Head stand up, but Leonard ignored it.

Church just sat in the window watching the snow fall. He only turned around when he heard Pyramid Head return and walk over to him. He stared up at the rusted metal helmet and tilted his head to the side. His eyes grew wide as the monstrous butcher held something out to him. "Is that for me?" The head slowly nodded. Church reached out and took the weapon from him. He held the katana, and looked it over with wonder. He looked back up at Pyramid Head. "I feel bad. I didn't get you anything." He bit his lip and frowned. "I'll tell you what. The next time that It has us working together, I'll let you have all the best kills." Church smiled as the monstrous creature rumbled.

Sirens rang through the air and Church grinned. "Looks like it's time to open your present."

A/N: A little Christmas special for you. I hope you enjoy it and happy holidays.


End file.
